Runaways
by Celestial Moonlight Blade
Summary: The girl-who-lived was the only one would could defeat Voldemort, but raised ignorant of magic and her heritage Claire Potter didn't know that. At eight years old she runs away from her abusive aunt and uncle. She meets three other magical children and they become the runaways. What will become of wizarding Britain? Will the girl return to the place that had forsaken her? Slash!
1. Chapter 1

**Runaways**

**Me: Hello again. This is another story idea that's probably going to be strange, but I hope you'll enjoy it. This came to me purely of fan wank and thinking about Harry's home life, about Draco's family, and about how little screen time Ginny got as Harry's love interest, and the question hit me - what if Harry ran away as a kid? And then the idea just kind of kept flowing. It's also a female!Harry fanfic.**

**So, I do not own Harry Potter and...enjoy!**

**Chapter 1: Escape**

It was cold outside, though Claire Lily Potter never really noticed it. Rain lashed down on her and lightning lit up the sky, but she wouldn't turn around now that she had started walking.

In which direction she intended to go, and what she was going to do next...that she didn't know. The sense of loss and pain and confusion was too great; she could not stay there any longer. Nor could she simply go for help, her perpetual fear of the 'grid' as Theo, her conspiracy theorist classmate, called it, meant that she needed to get away from the cameras and the prison she'd called home.

Could she do it? Live unidentified, on the edges of society. Become an Unperson. At least you'd be able to mind your own business, right? You didn't have to be afraid to go to sleep. She could write out her stories and pictures on the walls and the floors without fear. She could say whatever she wanted to, eat her lunch without it being stolen by Dudley, she could walk around where ever she wanted without Vernon telling her she was a freak who shouldn't be seen by anyone and Dudley couldn't chase her with his friends, 'Claire hunting' was long behind her.

There was a tremendous feeling of owning her own life that Claire could deeply appreciate right now; there was no more fixed passage or stations of the life that she had to think about; there was only now, the road and her dreams to accompany her. She was really, honestly free. Not just from the hatred of her aunt and uncle, but of the fear and the pain that had characterized her life for so long.

Claire allowed herself to smile for the first time in weeks, she started to skip down the sidewalk, Petunia's stolen wallet and money in her pocket. The happiness was bubbling up inside her and she felt like singing. She'd always been a good singer; Vernon called it a useless skill. He used to love to rant about professional singers being 'cheaters' who used their prettiness to get absurd amounts of money while hardworking people (like him) had to slave away to get half the pay they did.

Not that it had stopped him from entering her in talent contests to win money off her that he proceeded to use for Dudley.

Well, the joke was on him now. She had his credit cards, and since Vernon pretended he had no niece he could not prove she was using them. Besides, since he started letting Dudley use his cards he'd figure it was him or one of his friends who was using them. She could get her money back.

Claire let her head bob to a beat only she could hear, her mouth silently forming words as she walked into the clothing store to get herself something new to wear. Good thing she didn't appear on security cameras, whatever the reason for that.

The black haired girl went through several stores, and eventually when she looked at herself in the mirror she was amazed by what she saw. She saw a waify, pale angel in the reflection. She looked exotic, a word she never would have associated with herself before.

She also ended up looking through stores to see what might entertain her. She'd been pretty much forbidden from having pleasant things, and since this wasn't on her dime she was going to have a good time. She bought a portable disk player and a few Leona Lewis albums. She loved that singer pretty much from the first time she heard a song of hers on the radio.

It was at this point, leaving the electronics shop, that Claire allowed herself to think about her 'special abilities', which was the main reason the Dursleys had hated her. Whatever they were, Claire was smart enough to realize that she wasn't ordinary. She didn't know what exactly she was capable of. She had wondered if it was telepathy or telekenisis initially, but it kept doing things that those powers didn't cover, so she ruled those out. She was fairly certain she wasn't a sorceress, because she didn't remember making any deals with Hell.

And with these thoughts came a vague, nagging feeling that there was something that should be holding her back, and it all lead to the note that had been left with her when her aunt had opened the door and found her. Perhaps there were other people like her? Something had happened to her parents, but they had been jobless layabouts who died in a drunk driving accident, according to aunt Petunia. The note, however, claimed they had been killed by some 'dark lord' and she had been saved by her mother's sacrifice.

It was all very strange, frightening and mysterious. But despite the ominous tone to it, it didn't trouble her now. Her spirits, despite the fairly tenuous position she was in, were higher than they had ever been.

There was a part of her that was still angry with the Dursleys, but the further away from them she walked the less she thought about them. She supposed her hate had been so strong it eventually transformed into apathy. Whatever happened to them next, whether they became famous, got into a fight or had a jet turbine land on their house it was beyond her worry. It just didn't matter. They didn't care about her so why should she care about them?

She found she wasn't even angry at whoever had left her there, saying that this was the only possible family that could properly raise her. Of course, she'd been angry at the beginning; scratch angry, she'd been downright furious. So, whoever out there who was close to her parents couldn't be bothered to take her in, they had to leave her with Petunia and Vernon. Judging by the tone of the letter she had a feeling they knew what they was like, but they left her there anyway.

Sometimes she did wonder if they would keep insisting on her staying there if they knew how they treated her, but she didn't feel like testing that particular theory.

She couldn't imagine what kind of people thought being regularly beaten up for things beyond her control constituted a safe, happy environment, but when she thought about it she decided that if that was the case she simply wouldn't get involved with them.

If that was their thoughts on how to treat children then it would be better if she never got involved with them. They could find whoever killed her parents themselves. It wasn't her worry. Experience had taught her to expect the worst of strangers in situations like this. And if they were ready to leave a girl in an abusive household just to keep her from getting a big head, then they could do without her.

Whatever it was could sort itself out; there was nothing worth staying with her aunt and uncle for. She had nothing and no one to hold her there. The only one who had cared had been her parents, who died for her, and it was going to be a long time before she could see them again.

The old nightmares of the woman, the monster and the green light were surely just that, an nightmare, just one of the many things that happened around her that she could never explain. At least, where she was going, uncle Vernon couldn't hurt her for having the dream. Or for making glass explode when she was upstairs, or for making Dudley grow donkey ears after he kicked her a few times, or for puncturing the car tires despite standing six feet away from them with nothing in her hands.

The streets always seem to go on forever, but eventually Claire found the bus stop. She pulled up her hood again and stepped on. The bus driver raised an eyebrow but was mollified when she said that she was going to visit her father, and that she did this all the time. She picked a seat next to the window and pulled on her headphones, setting her backpack on her knees. 'Bleeding Love' started playing as the bus drove off.

It would take her to the airport, where she would go to Norway. It was the first place that came to her, and the old viking stories had always fascinated her. She felt drawn to it, the fire and ice, the ancient monsters and warriors that set out to fight them. There was a strange, fearsome beauty to it. She wanted to see the old ruins and hear the old stories.

As far as she was concerned, the worst was behind her.

%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&

The airport wasn't that crowded, and it was here that a strange thing happened to Claire. In retrospect, it was actually an extremely pleasant coincidence and she certainly grew to appreciate it fast.

She was just walking to put her suitcase onto a conveyor belt when she was accidentally shoulder rammed, causing the perpetrator to drop her stuff.

"I'm so sorry!" a young voice said, and Claire blinked a few times to see a red haired girl probably a year younger than her frantically collecting the purse, bag and necklace she had dropped. Standing next to her was a dreamy-looking blonde girl and a decidedly unhappy-looking blonde boy.

Claire knelt and handed the girl her stick. The girl smiled and said, "oh, thank you so much, I didn't see you there I was in such a rush."

"Don't worry about it," Claire said. She looked around. No one seemed to be following them, although the kids looked to be her age. "Uh, were are you parents?"

The blonde boy cringed and glanced over his shoulder as though he was being hunted, a gesture Claire herself had made many, many times over the past few days. "I hope not. We're running away from them. Well, except Luna." He glanced at the blonde girl, with an expression like there were emotions in him that he was trying to get over.

Luna nodded. "My parents died." She explained. "They were killed by a couple of Death Eaters."

Claire was shocked, both by the story and by the girl's bluntness. "I'm so sorry."

"It's okay. Mummy took most of them with her. Although," the girl frowned, "the aurors were supposed to be there but they didn't show up, the Crouch person said they had been needed in more important places."

Claire was simultaneously stunned and disgusted. Who said that to a girl who had just lost her parents? "That's terrible. I'm sorry to hear that."

"Thank you. I'm sorry too." Luna smiled sadly. "I wish Britain wasn't so messed up."

"Hey," The blonde boy said, "we don't care now, remember? Whatever happened back there is over and done with and not our problem."

Claire was surprised, she'd been reminding herself of that for the last 48 hours. They really were running away then, not just from home but from their entire country.

The redhead nodded. "Yeah, I'm also running away, because..." She cast her eyes down. "My parents...don't accept me." She swallowed and said, "sorry, I just noticed you were here alone -"

"It's okay. I'm running away too." Claire said.

"Oh," the girl said, startled. "Really? So are we."

Clarie smiled at the girl. It had been the first time in a long time she remembered smiling at someone else. "It's a bit risky, but I think I'm going to be okay."

The blonde boy had been studying her for a few moments before his eyes found her scar, he then exclaimed in surprise, "You're Claire Lily Potter?" He sounded shocked and amazed, though thankfully he managed to keep his voice down.

Claire's eyebrows shot up. "What? How do you know my name?"

The redhead looked equally shocked, but Luna just quirked an eyebrow and didn't seem particularly shocked or starstruck. "I'm sorry," the girl said, "you – you were just really famous where we used to come from." she promptly gave the boy a death glare before saying, "Didn't you just say we didn't care about that stuff anymore Draco?"

Draco gulped and said, "I'm sorry blood-sorry, I meant Ginny." he muttered an imprecation directed at himself, as though he was trying to break himself of a habit and had nearly slipped up. "I was just surprised and forgot myself." He glanced around before saying, "shouldn't we wait in the – what did the muggles call it? The waiting area?"

Ginny nodded distractedly, "I think so, I keep getting lost, muggle places and phrases are confusing me."

Claire smiled and said, "I know which way to go. Come on, I can show you. There's only an hour until boarding, we should start moving again."

All three kids nodded, looking relieved and grateful.

%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&

Claire checked their tickets, somehow they were on the same plane. It was a chance coincidence; she hadn't been allowed to have friends before since Dudley would scare off whoever tried to talk civilly with her.

She bought them all snacks for the plane ride, which would be several hours. She was really delighted that magic, as she discovered, could massively screw up electronics, especially if she directed it to do so. Petunia would think that it was her spending on this credit card and couldn't prove otherwise, that thought alone put a satisfied smirk on her face.

"You really don't know anything about magic?" Ginny asked, flabbergasted. She was born Ginerva Molly Weasley, but she absolutely detested that name and would dope slap Draco whenever he used it. "_Anything_?"

Claire nodded. Draco's jaw dropped and even Luna dropped her dreamy quality to look funny at her. "I thought I was crazy – or some kind of freak, like my aunt and uncle always said."

"Your aunt and uncle call you a freak?" Luna asked, sounding puzzled, but understanding. She had been born Luna Marcus Lovegood to Maia and Xeno Lovegood, a moderately well-off pureblood family well-known (and therefore, well-mocked) for their eccentricities. "I could see the muggle kids calling you that, I get that all the time from other kids but the grown-ups never call me that."

Claire snorted. "They just do. And I'll be damned if I understand why. It's why I ran away – I was just so tired of being mistreated, kicked, screamed at, punished for accidents or mistakes I didn't mean to make, getting beaten up or just for existing. I just don't care what happens to them now, whether they win the lottery or have a meteor fall on their house it's their problem, not mine." Claire then smiled and raised the credit cards, "Though I did expect dear Uncle Vernon to refund me after using my music money to buy presents for Dudley, like he didn't have enough already."

Draco made a face of disgust, "so that's why my father doesn't think muggles are fit to raise a magical child, what the bloody hell was Dumbledore thinking, leaving you with people like that?" He had been born Draco Albatrax Black-Malfoy to Lucious Malfoy and Narcissa Black, two staunch pureblood and supporters of Voldemort, the Dark Lord who he told Claire had killed her parents.

"Dumbledore?" Claire asked, confused.

"Oh, he's an authority figure back in Magical Britain," Ginny explained, "Headmaster of Hogwarts, Cheif Warlock of the Wizardot, Order of Merlin first class, he used to be Supreme Mugwarp but he lost that title about two days ago. I remember my mum ranting about it but I was packing and didn't pay close attention. Very power wizard, probably one of the most powerful out there. Highly respected."

"Was he related to my parents?" Claire asked.

"No." Draco snorted. "Your father on the other hand, James Potter, was practically Dumbledore's attack dog, he did everything the man asked him too. Which was probably why Dumbledore had any say in where you grew up." The blonde boy's mouth curled into the start of a smirk, "It almost would have been worth staying in Britain a few more days just to see his face when he found out that he placed you in an abusive home and you left."

Claire admitted that thought amused her too. She handed out the start of the snacks, muffins chiefly. "Try these, they're muggle treats, filling though. Should keep us until we get to Norway."

Luna started eating one right away, Ginny and Draco both eyed it speculatively before trying them. "Not bad," Ginny said, before digging in.

"So why are you guys running away?" Claire asked. The three other wizards exchanged a quick look, as though trying to decide who wanted to go first. Luna volunteered.

"I lost both my mummy and my daddy," Luna explained sadly, "and everyone else who I know besides Ginny thinks I should be put in St. Mugo's, no one understands the things or sees the world the way I do. I didn't want to stay in a hospital forever so I contacted Ginny. She was going to run away so I decided to go with her, I think there are all kinds of creatures in Norway. Loki liked to go down there a lot, I wonder if we could catch sight of his spectral form at some point."

Claire had privately thought Luna strange when she'd been directing them, now she was glad she hadn't voiced that thought out loud, despite her calm way of saying it she could tell Luna was unhappy.

The announcement for young children to start boarding sounded, and Claire helped Draco, Ginny and Luna get to their seats. Ginny magically switched their tickets so they were sitting together in a group of four.

Draco told Claire that they were avoiding using magic as much as possible to avoid setting off the Ministry Underage magic trackers, which would only break when they crossed the border, where they would (in normal circumstances) register with the Norway magical government. They had no intention of doing that, since it would open an avenue for their old people to find them. Accidental magic, on the other hand, wasn't monitored, so they could use it sparingly if they could urge it to do so.

Together, the four of them magicked their seats so they could sit across from each other around a table when in flight. The muggles were none the wiser to any of this.

Ginny sighed, "I might as well go next. I'm from a poor but pureblood family. Draco, you were right about one thing, though only one thing," she scowled at the boy in question, who merely raised his hands defensively. "My mum's a social climber, so when it comes to me she adheres to all pureblood standards. That meant I would be nothing but property, a baby machine, nanny and political chip for my parents and then my husband. I couldn't bear a life like that." She closed her eyes, "My mum threatened to cast me out onto the streets unless I complied, she was going to pick a suitor for me and we'd marry just after I did my OWLs, after that I grabbed whatever I could gather that belonged to me and took off. I found Luna almost immediately and we ran into Draco further down the road. He picked our destination."

Claire was, once again, utterly appalled to hear all this. "Geez, Ginny..." She hesitantly reached out, took the girl's hand and squeezed it comfortingly. Ginny smiled gratefully, allowing Claire to breathe easy, she'd been worried she'd done something wrong.

Draco sighed, "I suppose that leaves just me. I was born a Malfoy in one of the big Pureblood marriages - you know what I'm going to call it alliance because that's what it really is. Anyway, as I told you before my parents are staunch believers in the Pureblood greater good, i.e. A philosophy that only those who have two wizards for parents are worthy of ruling and running society. I had...a weird life, I'm both spoiled and abused, I was totally brainwashed by those ideals, I thought power and respect was mine by birthright. I was a right bastard, even as young as I was."

Claire frowned, "We are young,"

Draco gestured in a self-deprecating manner, "Well, younger. I had these friends named Theodore Nott and Blaise Zabini. Theo's parents weren't as hardcore in their belief as my parents were. They betrayed one of the most important belief that my parents and their ilk upheld – they set up a marriage contract between Theo and a half blood, Colleen Lamb I think her name was. Anyway, dad flipped out. I tried to protest on Theo's behalf but he didn't listen, I ran to Theo's house to find it on fire. His parents were hung and burned with a sign saying "REWARDED AS A TRAITOR DESERVES" next to them. They killed Theo too, I found his body on the stairs."

By this point Claire felt right sick. Draco gave a weak nod and continued, "They hated Blaise and his mother because they're Italian, they also hate foreign blood because they have different ideas on blood purity. They tolerated them before because they wanted to leech of their riches; if dear mother had a daughter they probably would have married her to Blaise to get their fortune before killing Blaise. They told me to direct me to his house, but I had learned my lesson, I sent a firecall ahead and warned Blaise they were coming. They were long gone by the time the Death Eaters found their original house. My dad-" he was sure to use as much sarcasm as possible on the word, "was beyond furious. He hit me with his staff and roared at me to tell them where the Zabinis had gone, and that I was already in a lot of trouble for helping filth like them. I spat in his face and told him I would never give up my friend, even if I knew where he was."

"That's when we found you," Ginny said, her eyes betraying that she had been worried sick, "Lucius beat you something bad and then forced you to take Veristrum." To Claire she said, "it's a kind of truth serum, it's very dangerous to take in other than small doses, especially for children."

Horrible, all of it. Claire was sickened. "How is Lucius not in prison?" She asked, "You said he supported You-Know-Who, he killed Theodore and his parents, and he could have rendered you braindead from that little thing."

Draco snorted derisively, "My dad is rich. He just claimed Imperious on his actions during the war and paid off/eliminated anyone who questions or tries to stick up to him. My family is just fucked up Claire. Be glad you weren't born a Malfoy or a Black."

"I most certainly am." Claire said in disgust, "how'd you get away?"

"Help from Ginny and Luna," Draco said, offering the two girls a slight, hopeful smile. The two girls returned that with a radiant smile, it changed their entire faces, made them beautiful and happy. "They found me on the street where Lucius had left me and revived me. Despite me being a pureblood and I wouldn't have blamed them for just leaving me there, I was such an intolerable little asshole back then. That ordeal had me whistling a different tune. I suggested we go to Norway; they wouldn't think to look for us there and it's fabled that the four Founders got their magnificent skills and extra powers when they went on a journey there. Lucky for me," he smirked, "Lucius forgot a few things when he disowned me."

"Like what?" Claire asked.

Draco's smirk widened. "My mother's family expressed quite strenuously in their marriage contract that should anything happen, all the Black money would go straight to me, since the only other direct Black had been disowned, when dearest Lucius disowned me he cut himself from the Black money. Most of his money and power come from the Black marriage, the Malfoy family used to be quite poor and connived to get the money that they had so far, and Lucius has gotten far to used to having millions of gallons to fall back on now that it's mine to use. Until such time as Sirius Black is released – which I highly doubt, since it is Azkaban we're talking about – I basically have the whole fortune on my back."

Claire snickered. "Serves him right." She said. "But can't the wizarding bank trace your money to where you're using it?"

"We went to Gringotts to check that," Draco replied. "They don't give up banker information to wizards unless they're family – which, as Lucius put it, we aren't anymore – and even then, only under extreme circumstances. I asked for anonymity regarding everything and for my vault to be transferred to the Norway branch. Thankfully, there's an old Black house here, so we're pretty much set. I had the bank teller check everything, the legislation is iron clad. Looks like wizarding Britain is strangled by the very chains it uses to control it's citizens!"

All four runaways got a good laugh at that. After that, they all descended into friendly, lighthearted talk, Claire telling them about the muggle world while Ginny, Luna and Draco told them about magic and its uses. By some unspoken agreement, after that last conversation about Gringotts they halted any talk of Britain. By now the country was miles behind them and out of their minds, they'd just have to handle things without them there.

"You want to live with us?" Ginny, Draco and Luna asked all at once, Claire was delighted, "Of course, I'd love that."

"You should know what we're looking at, grand house, no adults and no grid to be trapped in. Lovely countryside, only dragons and house elves for company, just us and the world." Draco said.

"Sounds almost like a fairy tale, doesn't it?" Luna asked. They then had to explain what a house elf was to Claire. Ginny made Draco swear up and down to treat Dobby and any other house elf they got fairly; apparently most wizards didn't treat house elves kindly despite them working for the family and treating them kindly. Claire vowed that she wouldn't be like that, and whatever elf she found she would treat like part of the family.

Dragons also sounded like fun, one of Ginny's six older brothers had a job as a dragon handler and she had been rather looking forward to joining him in that lifestyle. It was high paying and highly sought after, as only the very wealthy could afford a dragon and it was considered a symbol of incredible power, especially if you got one as a familiar.

"Yeah." Claire agreed. "I always wanted a dragon for a pet." The four laughed again and daydreamed over what their former guardians might do if they saw the kids with dragons for pets/familiars.

"So what are you guys planning to do?" Claire asked after they broke out lunch. The plane fight was about halfway across and, as Luna dreamily informed them, thirty minutes to the ward line where the tracking charms would be terminated. Ginny, Draco and Luna were very excited about this, and were pouring over muggle chips, sandwiches and pop with new-found interest and excitement. "I want to be a singer."

"You know, I've heard of some wizards with the empath talent were capable of amazing feats when they imbued their magic with singing," Luna remarked, "because it's just such raw, expressive and completely unlimited emotional statement, the magic can flow freely and quickly in it."

"Cool," Claire said thoughtfully, "Maybe I should try that."

"I want to be a dragon handler, like Charlie," Ginny said. "I always love exotic creatures, and excitement and some degree of danger. Maybe I could even get a dragon familiar." She then launched into a long tirade about other magical creatures, including Unicorns, giant spiders, Basilisks, Cockatrice, Manticors and Hippogriffs, stopping only to catch her breath.

Draco looked amazed, "How do you do that on three breaths?"

"Draco, when you have six older brothers, you have to be loud and fast if you plan to be heard at all." Ginny said. She'd told them about her brothers, with Fred and George nice to her but often in trouble for pranking, Bill and Charlie almost always out of the country, and her father distracted by his fascination with muggles that left only Ron Weasley. Ron hated being just 'the fifth Weasley boy' and felt threatened by the illustrious careers of his brothers and wanted to win acclimation of other people, and most of all their controlling mother, and he often took this out on Ginny. Ginny got the most attention from their mother due to her attempts to groom her to get a highly placed husband, and Ron resented this and bullied her because he couldn't take it out on any of his other brothers.

Luna sighed, "Listening to you two makes me with I had one but only one sibling who was just like me, I can't imagine having several siblings or being only children with parents like yours."

Claire shrugged. "I'm sure there are decent, loving parents out there. We just weren't raised by them."

"Some people get all the luck," Draco muttered under his breath, causing the girls to laugh again.

"You're in the right place," Draco said, harking back to Ginny's chosen career, "Norway is a haven for dragons, apparently. There's some sort of raw magical _mine, _for lack of a better word, in this country. Magical creatures flock to it and wizards often come here to strengthen themselves."

"Awesome!" Ginny squealed. She didn't mention her mother never would have allowed her this career. She didn't have to, the picture she had painted was clear as crystal and besides, she was back in Britain and none of their concern.

"I think I'm going to be a reporter." Luna said. "Or maybe a writer. Then I can tell everyone about the world they don't see."

"I want to be a curse breaker. Or a lawyer." Draco said. "Or maybe a politician, so I can make sure what happened to us doesn't happen again."

All four of them nodded. They agreed muggle food was quite nice.

%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%

Taking Claire's lead, the four young wizard and witches crammed themselves into the back of a cab which Draco directed to the outskirts of town. They were tossed about as it swept through the countryside, the cab driver blaring Miley Cyrus over Draco's muffled threats of severe bodily harm if he continued to play her music.

Eventually, after much cursing and cramps, Draco shouted over the radio, "great, stop. This is the place."

The cab driver stopped and stared out the window, frowning, "You sure, kid? I can't see a footpath."

"Yeah, this is the place. Don't worry." Draco said.

Relieved, Luna, Claire and Ginny disentangled from the pile they'd been stuck in and went outside. Draco paid the cab, which sped off. Draco glared after it and said, "Claire, if all muggle music is as awful as that, I may have to invest in earplugs."

Claire laughed, "It's not all that awful, Draco. That's just Miley I'm-Massively-Overrated Cyrus. Leona Lewis is much better, I'll play my disk when we get settled." She glanced out. A cool wind ran through her black hair, she could see the sea and hear the crashing of the waves against the shore. The sun was starting to set, causing a beautiful picture. Claire wanted to paint it so badly. "We here, finally?"

"Yup." Draco said. "This way, ladies." He turned and walked down the stone path that had materialized right after the cab had left. Ginny, Claire and Luna exchanged a surprised look before following him.

They didn't have to go far._ Claire felt her jaw drop as she saw the massive, grand mansion sitting near a cliff above the sea. It was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen, except in the Disney movies she'd been shown at Figg's place_. On either side of her, adjusted to poverty Ginny looked equally thunderstruck while Luna's eyebrows simply lifted an inch, as though this was no more surprising than seeing a Crumpled Hornshack.

Draco turned and smiled innocently back at them. "Welcome to one of the Black Mansions, girls." He gave a theatrical bow, "I am Draco Black and I wish to welcome you to the Black Norway Residence."

"You two should close your mouths," Luna said, looking at the still-stunned Claire and Ginny, "The Wakersprouts will get inside your head if you leave them open for too long."

Claire's mouth snapped shut and she said, "You're kidding, all this for us and it's just one of the houses, how rich are you Draco?"

"As a Black? Pretty damn rich. Though as the last Potter, you're probably filthy rich as well, you should probably check your finances at Gringotts tomorrow." Draco said, mentioning the second part as an afterthought.

Claire was still struggling to comprehend all this, she had gone from an battered, tormented orphan ready to take life as a street rat over living with her abusive aunt and uncle to having three friends, a gorgeous house, total freedom, discovery of her real identity, more money than she could shake a stick at, a new life and a chance to get a familiar. It was overwhelming and that added in with her running away two days ago and the long flight and she was dead tired.

"Come on in, it's time to get some rest," Draco said, clearly sharing her thoughts. The girls ran after him and into the house.

It was just as gorgeous inside as it was outside, when they entered the door Draco yelled, "Dobby!"

There was a crack and a small elf appeared in front of them, "please prepare the master bedroom and two others, also get Kreacher and tell him to help you clean this place up." Draco instructed.

"Yes young master sir," Dobby said earnestly, before disappearing with a crack. Draco turned and called, "Missy?"

Another elf appeared, this one unmistakably female, "You called young master? You are the new Black heir," she said.

"Yes I am, I would like you to clean the dining hall, set it for four people, and start on dinner. These are the preferences." Draco handed Missy their dinner lists. "If you need to buy anything, make a withdrawal, I've registered the elves that belong to me with my vaults."

"Yes young master." Missy bowed and vanished with another crack.

A moment later, Dobby re-appeared with another elf – Kreacher – and asked, "anything else young master?"

"Yes, after you're finished your first tasks the two of you please clean up the music room, and re-open the dragon stables, we're going to upgrade them tomorrow." Draco said. He turned to the girls, "Anything I missed?"

Claire was dazed, she still couldn't believe everything was happening this fast, "Uh, nothing's coming to mind,"

"Great. Hop to it, then, Kreacher take our luggage to outside the Master bedroom." Draco said. Both elves nodded and vanished again.

"Wow." Luna said, summing up everyone's feelings again.

Draco clapped and said, "Obviously there's other setting up that needs to be done but for now I say let's have dinner and figure out where we're sleeping. This way!"

Dinner was also a lavish affair. They entered a hallway that was clearly meant to house a lot of guests, but was currently just set for them with plenty of food. Ginny and Claire dug in like starving sharks; they hadn't been allowed to eat too much at their old homes so they were happy to have all they could need. After much arguing they finally conceded that Draco and Luna would share the Master bedroom (him being Head of House and all) while Ginny and Claire would get their own rooms. Claire was too psyched about having her own room, as opposed to a dingy cupboard under the stairs that she halted complaints after that.

So, free and full of food, Claire and her friends walked up to their _respective bedrooms. Claire was once again starstruck; her room was huge with a king-sized bed, several bookshelves, an exotic rug, some beautiful paintings, a desk and a massive dresser with several shelves. The entire room was spotless, the house elves clearly took any instructions from their masters very seriously._ Her suitcase seemed miniscule and almost pathetic in comparison.

Claire flopped down on her bed, once again amazed at the softness and grandness of it. She and her new friends literally had almost anything they could want at their fingertips. Claire wondered if she was dreaming, or if Vernon had once again starved her enough to make her hallucinate. But it was an awful long and realistic hallucination, if that was the case. She doubted it, they always ended before she could really escape. And she had always been rescued by her parents or by the mysterious black-haired person who she only knew as her godfather, not by three other runaways who were also magical.

Claire let out a sleepy sigh and let her thoughts scatter as she fell asleep, the beautiful evening light still shining through her window.

%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%%&

Albus Dumbledore was not having a good day.

A day ago the wards of Privet Drive alerted him thirty minutes late that Claire Lily Potter was no longer in the house. When he eventually reached the house neither of the Dursleys would tell him where she had gone; Vernon Dursley was too busy furiously ranting that someone was falsely charging him thousands of dollars and how dare they do this to him. Petunia finally said that the little girl must have run away.

Dumbledore spent the next day looking for her. But the girl had covered her tracks well; the underage magic trackers were silent and no one on the street or in the surrounding area could tell him where the girl might have gone. But even that didn't prepare him for what happened a day later.

Fifty-Two hours after the girl's disappearance all magic tracking of Claire Potter was terminated. Somehow, the girl had successfully left the country.

The whole Ministry was in an uproar; Cornelius had been futilely raising all kinds of panic and chaos ever since the revelation. Dumbledore's sole consolation was the fact that the Potter Vaults were still active meant that Claire was still alive, being the sole inheritor.

The goblins were also being immensely unhelpful; they adamantly refused to tell him anything that might have helped him find the lass. In fact, their investigation had dug up his seizure of money and land from Potter vaults and he was promptly evicted, he no longer had control over the votes the Potter vaults had held too.

Dumbledore had been calling in favor after favor for people to search for the girl who lived while the people were in uproar over the disappearance of their savior. And yet nothing was turning up. Severus, being even more sarcastic than usual, explained to him that not every child would simply tolerate being treated badly and that he should have seen this coming.

To make matters worse Minerva had been immensely unsympathetic, saying "well what were you expecting leaving her with those kinds of people! And re-directing anyone who tried to remove her from that house – Albus, you should be perfectly ashamed of how you've treated her. Leaving her with those muggles! The fat one was more worried about some inconsistencies with his bank than her disappearance. I'm not an idiot, I can tell just from that why little Claire ran away. You should be very, very sorry!"

Outside of Britain...Claire had left Britain. But she couldn't! She was his weapon against Voldemort. She was needed here.

But, Albus was forcefully reminded, Claire didn't know that. She didn't even know that she was a witch. She didn't know how important she was to the future of wizarding Britain.

But where could she have gone? The outside world was a big place, and the girl would be lying low. The goblins were refusing to help him and his tracking equipment had failed the moment she left the country.

Molly Weasley was also being a very unpleasant distraction. She had been ranting to Dumbledore almost nonstop for the past day, saying that her youngest child Ginny had run away and that he better find her, immediately! Dumbledore had to hit her with a silencing charm, he had more important things to worry about than the youngest Weasley going missing. Although it did leave him a potential clue.

At the ministry, although it was mostly submerged by the chaos of Claire's disappearance, Lucius had been ranting about his son Draco having vanished as well, along with him being cut off from the Black money. That left at least three wizarding children the same age who vanished around the same time.

That suggested that they might have left together.

Was this an elaborate plot for Lucius to get control over the girl-who-lived? But why have Draco leave the country? Why would he be disowned? Why not just have Claire renounce her muggle relatives and then snatch her? Why go through something so complicated instead of just killing the girl?

Albus sighed. The girl was more headaches than she was worth as far as he was concerned. She was supposed to be a meek little thing, not a rebel that would run away rather than tolerate the Dursley's treatment of her. He was supposed to swoop in and fill her with wonder and awe when he brought her to the wizarding world.

She wasn't supposed to disappear.

Now what?

**End Chapter**

**I always wondered when, exactly, Lucius started caring about Draco. He treated him like crap just because Hermione got higher grades than him! So, that's the first chapter. this might be utterly silly but I hope you liked it.**

**Read and Review please!**


	2. Chapter 2: New Home

**Runaway**

**Me: I'm back! I admit, I'm surprised by the reception this story has received! You all warm my heart. Here's the next chapter! I do not own Harry Potter.**

**Chapter 2 New Life**

Claire woke slowly. Then blinked a few times, just to be sure. Yes, she was still in the Norway Black Manor, her magical friends and escape from Britain had all been real, the house was real, she was free and safe.

She turned her head to the right. Her room had window that had a view of the ocean, although the complete beauty could be seen from the balcony. The water would be cold because they were fairly far up north, but the beaches would still be a sight to see. Her CD player was sitting on her desk exactly where she'd left it before she went to sleep.

There was a clock in her room and it read 9:00. She couldn't remember the last time she had been allowed to sleep in that late. Then again, she couldn't remember a time when she didn't have to sleep in a cupboard under the stairwell. And this was no cupboard.

She sat up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She had fallen asleep in the clothes she'd worn yesterday, having been too tired to change out of them. Claire could also tell that she needed a bath.

As if in response to her thoughts, there was a crack and Missy, one of the house elves from their arrival, appeared.

"Can Missy help you Missus Potter?"

"Uh, yeah, I really a bath, is there-?"

"Oh yes, Young Master had us draw bathwater for all the young masters since you didn't have one yesterday."

"Thanks, can you show me where?" Claire asked, grabbing some of the muggle clothes she'd bought after running away.

The pure astonishment of this manor hadn't worn off yet. Even the bathroom was something expensive and impressive, marble and gold and with running wate_r. Claire, with some satisfaction, noted that she could probably fit both of Dudley's bedrooms into this bathroom alone. _Missy helped her wash her hair and put some soothing ointment on old scars and bruises. Claire scrubbed her skin clean of dirt and felt like she was also washing off her old life.

"Are the others awake yet Missy?" Claire asked.

"Young Master Draco is awake, as been so for twenty minutes Lady Claire." Missy said. "Young Mistress Luna is still asleep and Mistress Ginny is also having her bath. Dobby is helping her and Kreacher is making breakfast. Young Master Draco was wondering when you'd be down."

"Right. Tell Draco I'll be there in a few minutes." Claire said. Missy smiled brightly and disappeared once again.

Claire let the water drain, dried herself off and changed into her clothes, which consisted of black stretch pants, an orange shirt with a cat on it saying 'I'm just kitten' and a jean jacket. She considered tying her hair but opted to leave it down. Then she stepped out of the bathroom, feeling like a new girl entirely before walking down the stairs.

The grand staircase lead into the main room, and Claire got a little lost before Kreacher was kind enough to direct her to the dining room. Claire liked Kreacher the least of out all the house elves they worked with, Draco had apparently ordered him not to call her names but she could see him muttering them. Draco explained that the last Black head of house was a pureblood fanatic and it rubbed off on her house elves.

"You said you used to be one," Claire said, "could you tell me what the pureblood agenda entails, completely? Just so we know to be on the lookout for those kinds of people."

"Sure," Draco said, though he didn't look happy about having to discuss it, "Let's get breakfast though."

Claire nodded and sat down at her place.

A while later they were joined by Ginny and Luna. Ginny was still looking as though she couldn't believe what she was seeing, while Luna looked as though she was still waking up and murmuring about how it was good they were close to the water because the nargles wouldn't be able to find them here.

"Good morning!" Draco said cheerfully. "How'd everyone sleep?"

"Like a baby," Claire responded. "I love my room."

"Very well, thank you Draco," Luna said.

"Amazing. This is so brilliant." Ginny said dazedly.

The four of them started to eat breakfast. "So, what are we going to do today?" Luna asked.

"Finish moving in." Draco said. "Firstly – finances. Claire, I'll help you handle your money and vaults. Being the last remaining Potter makes you Head of House, incidentally that makes you the first female Head of House in six generations. Ginny and Luna, I've finished the living arrangements. Officially, you'll be declared dead in Britain in a few days."

"I've never been declared dead," Luna said, "Does that mean that everyone thinks we're dead and therefore can't see us?"

"It means they won't look for you." Draco said. "Secondly – seriously, this place needs to be spruced up. Claire, the music room's yours. There's an art room and a ballroom. My great-great-great-something grandfather Robert Black was a fan of the arts when he owned this house, hence why it's so tasteful. Thirdly – we'll go out to the beach. There's a fairly good chance dragons will be dancing down there. It is mating season."

"The goblins won't have a problem with me being a Head of House?" Claire asked. "I'm only nine after all."

"They'll be fine with it, during wartime it was common for people to ascend very young due to their parents dying in battle. In any case, if you don't claim it before you hit seventeen the goblins with liquidate it because none of the Potters have claimed it."

"Right." Claire said. "Is there a way to magically create a generator for electricity?"

"My dad mentioned that a whole bunch of times, it's possible but no one in the ministry is interested in funding him." Ginny said.

"The elves will take care of that." Draco said. "Why, what's the interest?"

"Then we can have running electricity here as well as magic, trust me you guys will love TV if the elves can safeguard it against magical interference." Claire said in a confidential tone.

"Great! Then we've got a schedule, Missy get the car." Draco said cheerfully.

Claire was thrilled. They also had a magic-driven car.

Missy could masquerade as their mother if need be. She could also drive cars and buy groceries. It was brilliant. It was perfect. Claire watched the scenery as they were swept into downtown magical Norway. It really was a living fairy tale.

Missy showed them to the bank. Gringotts was large and entirely run by goblins; Draco warned her to be polite when dealing with them as they had their own strict set of rules, and you really didn't want to get challenged to an Honour Duel. They were fairly short and vicious looking, though they were quite civil when they addressed their clients.

"Draco Black," Their goblin, Greeva, said in a gravelly tone, "Can I assist you today?"

"I'd like to have some gallons transferred to muggle currency, there are some things I need to buy sir." Draco said. "But apart from that, nothing. I was just showing Miss Claire Potter in."

Nervously Claire approached the desk. "I-I wish to confirm my status as Head of the Ancient and Noble House of Potter." She said carefully.

Greeva examined her for a moment before shouting at another goblin to see to Draco's exchange. "Come with me," he said briskly. Claire glanced back at Draco and Missy before nodding and following Greeva back into an official-looking room where a desk, a large box and two chairs were waiting.

"Please sit down," Greeva intoned, sitting down and gesturing to the other chair. Claire slowly sat down, unsure of how to proceed.

Greeva went straight to business, "It's is pleasing to see you alive and in one piece Lady Potter, Britain has been in a right state of chaos since you left,"

"One would think oddly, but I had no reason to remain there. Whatever problems Britain has are its own, and my own problems are separate from theirs now." Claire said politely and careful to keep her tone as neutral as possible.

Greeva nodded and might have smiled a bit, "A smart decision made by one so young. Now, business." He paced a big stack of papers on the desk and said, "To become Head of House I need to to sign these documents, and I will need a drop of your blood."

Claire shivered a bit but signed where she needed to. She winced a bit when the blood was taken, but it was over quickly.

Greeva gave her the Potter ring and said, "Now, in other matters. Though Draco Black is officially the Head of House of Black, your godfather Sirius Black despite being in Azkaban had categorically required that you receive a certain amount of allowance from the Black vaults. Had he not been thrown in Azkaban he would have blood adopted you and you would have had a stronger claim to the House of Black than your distant cousin Draco. However, everything as it may be as it may you are still entitled to this allowance, which is in a separate vault from the main Black vault. Only your key can access it." He placed these papers in front of her.

Claire was stunned. Sirius Black was her godfather? But that couldn't be right. In her dreams her godfather was giving her to someone so he could look for the one who betrayed her parents, if Sirius Black was her godfather than he couldn't have been the betrayer.

It was a puzzling thought, one she'd have to share with the others later.

Greeva handed her the will of her parents and let her read through it.

"Next, there have been some irregularities and out right illegal dealings that you'll want to look into now that you are Head of House. Now, your former magical guardian Albus Dumbledore-" Claire was getting dizzy, Dumbledore was her magical guardian too? What else didn't she know about her heritage? "-had accepted on your behalf a marriage contract from one Molly Weasley. If you do not contest this when you turn fifteen you will be magically bound and married to Ronald Weasley."

"WHAT?!" Claire just barely managed to avoid shrieking, she'd heard plenty or horror stories about Ron Weasley from Ginny, and even if he hadn't been him she didn't want to be married before she finished school. Why would he do that?

"Do you wish to dissolve this contract?" Greeva asked, eyebrow raised slightly from her outburst.

Claire took a calming breath. "Yes, I wish to dissolve it."

"Understood. It will be terminated before noon." Greeva had her seal the document and handed it to a nearby goblin. "On a related note, when this contract was discovered it also came to our attention that 250,000 gallons had been yearly removed from this account by Albus Dumbledore and sent to the Weasley account, as well as a sizable dose of both Amorita, a highly powerful, dangerous and illegal love potion, and Lyrax, a loyalty potion that in high doses can destroy the mind."

Claire's jaw dropped. "You're kidding." She managed. When Greeva shook his head no, she said, "Can I retract these transactions?"

"Yes, it is your right now." Claire wasn't used to having this kind of power, it made her feel much better. She had that signed and sealed, not using her name but simply leaving it as Head of the House of Potter.

"To continue with this," Greeva handed her yet another letter. Claire accepted it and scanned it, she had some trouble with the official language used but she got the gist of it. She owned property – she could hardly wrap her brain around the thought. Only some of it has been seized. "I recommend not only retracting the property used by Albus Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix, but also fine them for it."

"Okay, but please don't bankrupt them if it would, just leave them enough to live by if it comes to that," Even though Albus Dumbledore had clearly meant to brainwash her Claire couldn't bear the thought of consigning anyone to the lifestyle she'd lived with during her tenure with the Dursley's.

Greeva looked surprised but nodded. "Understood. Done and completed, this notices will be sent to Britain."

Claire frowned, looking back down at the will, "It says here there is a man named Remus Lupin who would have been my uncle and guardian had the Ministry not barred him from even contacting me, is he alive?"

"Yes, he is." Greeva said.

"Why did they refuse to let him raise me?" Claire asked, trying to keep the anger out of her voice and mostly succeeding.

"Remus Lupin carries the misfortune of being a werewolf." Greeva replied bluntly. "The people fear him, they would have refused to let him around any child, nevermind a daughter of an Ancient and Noble house like yourself due to allegedly being a danger to you."

Claire felt tears prick at the edges of her eyes, she knew what it was like to be treated like a freak and monster despite being kind-hearted, "Is he poor?"

"He lives on the edge of poverty," Greeva confirmed. "It is hard for him to keep a job and he is ostracized by many who know his secret."

At this, Claire's decision was solidified, "I hereby sell Remus John Lupin Shell Cottage and the surrounding forty-acre woods, no rent required. I also state that he be sent 50, 000 gallons every year from the Potter Family Vault."

Greeva nodded. "Of course Lady Potter." He had a goblin collect these deeds and have them forwarded to the werewolf immediately.

With that settled, Claire smiled. Perhaps she'd sent Mr. Lupin a letter and ask him about himself and her parents. She turned her attention back to the letter and looked at the guardian list, "Who are Frank and Alice Longbottom? It says here that they would have been my guardians if Sirius Black had died."

"They were aurors during the war against the Dark Lord Voldemort." Greeva said, "Less than a day after your parents were murdered they were attacked by Death Eaters and suffered from prolonged exposure to the Crutioutos Curse, a forbidden curse that causes extreme agony. They currently reside in St. Mugo's for permanent care."

Claire squeezed her eyes shut at this, how horrible, was there anyone who Voldemort hadn't hurt? "What else do you know about them?"

"They have a son, Neville Longbottom, who's your age. He lives with his grandmother Augusta Longbottom in Britain."

Claire asked, "I wish to send him some books, and I wish to make a donation to St. Mugos. 100,000 gallons will do. Also, is it possible for a muggle bank account to be connected to this one?"

"It shall be done. And yes, it is possible." Greeva said.

"Good. Then I would like to set up one of those as well."

"As you wish Lady Potter."

%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&

Claire walked out of the bank with a certain weight on her shoulders after hearing what happened to her godmother, she wished she could do something more conclusive to help Neville Longbottom but where she was that was the best she could do.

Missy, Draco, Ginny and Luna were waiting for her at the steps. "You look serious. What's the matter?" Luna asked. Claire told them about all the things she had discovered, and about Remus and the Longbottoms.

Draco grimaced. "Merlin. I heard from my ex-father what happened to the two Longbottoms. Bellatrix never should have left St. Mugo's herself, something happened after Hogwarts that drove her completely insane. Look at what happened."

"It was very nice of you to buy those things for Mr. Lupin." Luna remarked. "I'm sure he'll be glad to have them. People aren't nice to werewolves."

"I can't believe mum and Dumbledore were going to do those things to you," Ginny was appalled and horrified, "I'm so sorry Claire."

"Don't worry about it, I took care of it." Claire said.

"Right. Now that that's settled, let's go to the music shop. I've got Dobby and Kreacher working on the electricity generator." Draco said. The girls brightened when they heard that and got back in the car.

%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&

Claire was in heaven. So was Ginny. They had such a good time that Missy eventually had to put a bottomless spell on the trunk of the car.

Claire bought a sound system, a guitar, a microphone, a drum set, a couple smart phones, a TV and a DVD/Blue-Ray player. Then they went into a paint shop to get paints and boards. Then Ginny took them through a tour of both muggle and magical clothing. Claire, Luna and Ginny couldn't believe it, they had beautiful dresses, first-hand clothing that fit them, and actual opal jewellery.

Draco brought them fully into the magical stores. They got themselves wands and text books, and a book on Fantastic Creatures and How To Handle them, the sequel to Where to Find Them.

Finally, loaded down with treasure, they headed home.

They stopped for lunch before getting to work.

The group agreed to split up and handle different sections. Ginny and Draco peeled off to the Entertainment Room, Missy disappeared upstairs with the clothing while Claire and Luna went straight to the massive music room. The music room was just as good as all the other rooms in the building, complete with a slightly raised stage and chairs for an audience at the back.

The electric generator was finished, and she had Dobby and Kreacher move and implement the sound system.

"Right. No, more to the left, perfect." She smiled as it was all put into place. "Dobby, be a dear and bring the piano in here. Kreacher, please assemble the drum set."

She plugged in the microphone and set it up in the middle of the stage. She put the guitar on the side and moved back. Perfect. Luna played a few notes on the piano and smiled at Claire, "My mummy taught me how to play."

Ginny and Draco, meanwhile, and been going through the hassle of getting the TV implemented and set up in one of the three entertainment rooms. Much creative dancing around curse words ensued until Draco finally figured out which wires went where and Ginny worked out how the remote worked.

They met up in the art room. They set up the paints and the canvases, which were now ready for use at a moment's notice. They then pulled out their smart phones, putting each other on the speed dial lists. Draco then called Dobby, and a moment later their phones were impervious to magic, something that left both Ginny and Claire very smug.

Then, as one, they went upstairs and observed their wardrobes. "Hey guys?" Claire asked conversationally.

"Yeah? Are we the best or what?" Draco asked dramatically.

Ginny chuckled, "I'm inclined to agree with you Draco, but I don't think that's what Claire was getting at."

"Yeah, remember when I said I don't care about the Dursleys anymore?" Claire asked. "Well, I can't help but look at all these beautiful things and want to thank them for spurring me to make the best decision of my life so far."

Three jaws dropped in tandem before Draco smirked and started laughing, "Oh, you _do _have an evil side Claire! I LOVE it!"

"I think I see your point too Claire, I mean I haven't written to my mum yet. I should send her something nice, shouldn't I?" Ginny asked with a false innocent smile.

"Missy!" Claire called. The small elf appeared. "We want to put on a fashion show!"

So, for the remaining hours before dinner, the four friends tried on clothes. Claire, who once lived in fear of being slapped for being too pretty, posed in front of her camera in an expensive dress with ensemble ruby jewellery that Petunia wished she could have, in a house that the Dursley's life savings couldn't buy. It was a fiery red and suited her nicely. Luna also looked beautiful, with a dress as silver as her name that complimented her eyes. Ginny was wearing an exotic outfit with dark glasses, sapphires in her hair and embroided high heels. Draco was also looking sharp in the suits he had purchased. They went through their wardrobes, wearing different outfits on the balcony and in front of the house, though they were careful nothing that could identify where they were was included in the pictures.

The laughing kids printed their pictures and began packing them into several separate envelopes. Claire attached an unnoticeable monitoring device to the ones to the Weasleys and Dursleys. "Please make sure these letters can't be followed back here," they told the post office man. The man nodded and sent them off via Floo.

They went straight back home and Draco had the screen temporarily moved to the dinner table so they could watch the chaos while they ate. Vengeance is sweet.

%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&

Remus Lupin couldn't believe it.

It was a hoax, a dream, it had to be. The Head of House Potter – who on earth could that be? - had sold him Shell Cottage and the woods around it? No rent demanded? He/She were giving him _50, 000 _dollars a year? His poverty would just vanish and suddenly he would have a stable, even hopeful living, an impossibility for a werewolf.

Who would do that for him? His only friends were dead, another had betrayed them and was in prison, and little Claire Potter had just gone missing. How? Why?

Cautiously, he made his way to Shell Cottage. If this was a prank, it was a cruel one.

But no. Shell Cottage had no traps and no one inside waiting to evict him, there was just a pile of documents and a package sent from Norway. Norway? He didn't know anyone from Norway.

Remus took the documents and sat down on the couch, wondering what on earth was going on. He was grateful to be sitting when he reached the end of it. The Head of House Potter was none other than the missing Claire. She was safe somewhere and had become Head of House, and _she _was the one giving him Shell Cottage and the allowance that had hit his bank account.

Hands shaking, Remus put the documents aside and opened the package. Several pictures fell out of it, clearly taken from a muggle camera, and Remus almost fainted. It was the eight-year-old Claire, laughing and holding hands with Ginny Weasley, _Draco Black?, _and Maia's daughter Luna, wearing dresses that certainly didn't come cheap on the balcony of a beautiful house. The last picture was just an image of Claire alone, smiling back at him, long black hair freshly washed and lying against her pale skin. She looked alarmingly thin but otherwise happy.

There was also a letter:

_Dear Mr. Remus Lupin_

_I'm sorry I didn't send you a letter sooner, but I wasn't even aware of my heritage until three days ago, and I had to find out about you from my parent's will. It's too bad the Ministry wouldn't let you take care of me; I would have loved to have you for a guardian. I read about you from my mother's letters, you sound like such a wonderful person, despite being a werewolf. _

_It's not your fault, but I think I should tell you why I left. I ran away from the Dursleys because they treated me horribly. I had to sleep in a cupboard under the stairs, they hardly fed me and Dudley would beat me up. I just couldn't stand it anymore and ran away. I went to Norway on my uncle's credit cards, so that'll show him. _

_I'm really sorry if I worried you by disappearing, but I couldn't stand that place. Anyway, by chance I ran into my friends Draco Ginny and Luna. Draco isn't a Malfoy anymore because his dad murdered his friends and disowned him for protecting his Italian friend from him. Unfortunately by doing that he and Narcissa (good name for the harpy) accidentally forfeited their shares of the Black fortune. And serve them right! Ginny ran away because her mother tried to sell her for a higher position in society, and Luna went with her because she didn't want to have to live her life in St. Mugo's after her parents died. _

_Also, be careful around Dumbledore, I found out some bad things about him. I think he wants to use me so please don't tell me you got a letter from me, I don't want him to possibly find me. Please, he stole money from me and tried to give me Amorita and Lyarx. _

_I hope I can see you sometime soon, but I'm too afraid to come back to Britain. It's not safe for us. But I hope what I've given you can make you happy._

_All my love_

_Claire Potter_

Remus set the letter down, not wanting to smudge the ink with the tears that suddenly blurred his vision.

-With Dumbledore-

"What do you mean, illegal acts?! I am the greatest Light wizard ever! How could I have done anything of the sort?!" Dumbledore demanded, his grandfatherly persona slipping badly, it was bad enough that he'd been evicted from Potter properties but now he was being sued?

"Sir," the goblin said, sarcasm dripping off the word, "we've found heavy doses of Amorita and Lyarx at the house of one Molly Weasley, the Amorita keyed to her youngest son and the Lyarx keyed to you. The intention of this is obvious and we'd like you to resign as Chief Warlock with your dignity in tact before we have to forcibly throw you out of the Wizamgot. You will have to be investigated as well."

Dumbledore was visibly knocked back for six. He had told that woman to keep the potions hidden! Had the girl discovered this when she became Head of her House? A female head of house! That was unheard of!

Regardless, she must have discovered some of his plans when the goblins unsealed her will. He couldn't afford an investigation, they'd find out about Black's innocence and potentially his decision of the girl's fate. He'd have to withdraw manipulations for now.

He just had to find a way to get the runaway girls back to Hogwarts.

-With Molly Weasley-

"You can't do this to me! I'll go straight to Dumbledore, mark my words!" Molly Weasley's legendary temper had erupted an hour ago and had been raging nonstop, leaving her youngest son Ron, currently the only person at home, cowering in his room. And a good thing too, Bill, Charlie, Arthur, Fred and George were furious with her making Ginny run away, they didn't need to know about the potions and Ron's intended bride had been.

Something, somehow, had gone wrong. The little girl had become head of house Potter – a girl, head of house! That was completely unprecedented! -the marriage contract had been dissolved, the yearly paychecks had been refunded and the potions discovered. She was going to have to sell almost all the sparkling new things she'd bought for herself and Ronald to get him to do his tutoring in politics to pay off the debts.

Molly had been so deep in her fuming that it took her several long minutes to notice that there was an envelope waiting for her in the mail. Thinking it was from Dumbledore, she ripped it open and was confused when several muggle pictures fell out. Then she read the note.

Immediately she snatched the photos off the floor and stared bug-eyed at each of them for several long minutes.

A minute later, there was a spectacular explosion of furious magic and a ranting Molly Weasley had to be hit with a silencer when the boys came home. When the brothers and fathers saw the pictures, they breathed identical sighs of relief to know that Ginny was safe, where ever she was.

-At the Dursleys-

"THE LITTLE BITCH!" Vernon Dursley was brought scurrying into the living room by his wife's shriek of shock and apoplectic rage.

Petunia was shaking, literally shaking, holding what looked like a letter and several pictures.

"She's mocking us, honey! The little bitch is _mocking_ us! Just – just _look at her!_" Petunia shoved the pictures under Vernon's nose. Dudley was standing nearby, holding a few and just gaping, his mouth hanging so far open that it was in legitimate danger of falling right off.

Claire Potter was standing in mansion that they could fit their house in several times over, with clothing, jewellery and equipment that cost more than Vernon made in a good six months. She looked beautiful and healthy and above all, cheerful and smug in her knowledge that she was more better off than them now by a _very large margin._

The girl cheerfully explained in her letter that she was grateful for them scaring her into running away, she had discovered her magic and the fact that she, as her father's daughter, was a multimillionare. So now she could buy anything she wanted, oh and this balcony had a beautiful view of the Norway sea, didn't it?

Vernon had to think of that for a few minutes before it hit him, he had had under his control a girl who was the heir to a fortune and by treating her like a freak spurred her to run away and discover this. So instead of them using the fortune he felt was rightfully theirs for taking the freak in, the girl had gotten away and now they were in credit card debt instead of living like kings.

The police men who came to take them to court over lack of payment charges had to knock Vernon Dursley out, the man had gone completely nuts.

Irony is a bitch.

**End Chapter**

**A little shorter than the last one, but I wanted to establish Claire, Draco, Ginny and Luna's new home. A note on Dumbledore, he'll do whatever he thinks is necessary to defeat Voldemort, and he believes there's only one way for that to happen. Hence the potions. **

**Read and Review please!**


	3. Chapter 3: Discoveries

**Runaways**

**Moon: Welcome back to runaways! I admit, I'm surprised how many people have liked this, since it was meant to be purely experimental! Thanks for that! I promise, promise, promise I'll try to avoid 'invincible sue Potter' plotlines that usually spawn from Harrry/Claire leaving the Dursleys. If she's going to get powers there's going to be an explanation for them, like tudoring at home or a strange book!**

**I do not own Harry Potter! Enjoy1**

**Chapter 3: Dragon Familiars, Singing and Painting**

At the same time, Claire, Ginny, Luna and Draco had sat down on the beach sands, awestruck by what they were seeing.

Literally hundreds of dragons were flying overhead. They were surprisingly friendly with both each other and the kids, as in they didn't attack them despite them being on the beach. They were radiant, so many types and breeds were flitting about it was like many jewels had been thrown into the air and were hanging there.

Ginny had brought one of her many dragon books and they played a game of identifying as many species as they could while they were there.

Suddenly, several young dragons broke free of the crowd and swooped down to the beach. The kids sprang to their feet and watched with wide eyes as the dragons speculatively looked over them, and then inclined their heads, as though telling them to come forward.

Tentatively, they all did so, Draco looked close to hyperventilating, "Oh Merlin it's actually happening, I can't believe it!" Claire was too psyched by the situation to ask what he was going on about.

Luna looked at a snow-white dragon that glittered like ice and smiled, "oh yes, my name is Luna. What's yours?" The dragon snorted and walked closer. Luna raised a hand and, her friends waiting on baited breath, she placed her hand on the dragon's snout. "Aletha? Oh, that's very beautiful name. It means truth." There was a brilliant flash of multicolored light, then Aletha snorted playfully and nuzzled Luna, almost causing the laughing girl to fall over.

"Dragon familiar." Draco squeaked, "Luna as a dragon familiar!"

%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&

Luna was ecstatic, she rambled about Aletha for quite some time even after they stopped flying. the other dragons became more friendly when they saw Aletha bond with Luna and let the other kids ride on their backs for a little. Claire was just happy Stormcaller liked her.

Eventually they sat down in a circle in the Entertainment Room before Draco said, "Wow, just wow. You're a lucky girl Luna. Dragons willingly offering themselves as familiars hasn't occurred since the time of the Founders."

"Who were the Founders?" Claire asked. "You said they founded Hogwarts, yes, but what else did they do?"

Draco looked all to happy for an excuse to launch into a history lesson. "Godric Gryffindor was on of the greatest duellists who ever lived. He was one who decided to pull the magical world back from the muggle one, resulting in the ward lines and separations that still exist today. Helga Hufflepuff was a healer, she started some of the first real hospitals. Rowena Ravenclaw was a philanthropist and a consummate teacher; she was the one who decreed that everyone had a right to learn, not just pureblood nobles. And then there was Salazar Slytherin. He was a genius when it came to spellwork. He created and organized many of the spells that became commonplace, and it was his quick thinking and hard work that saved many young witches from the muggles pyers."

Ginny glanced at Claire, "Claire, why did the muggles try to kill all witches?" She asked, frowning.

Claire sighed, "The muggles used to believe that a woman could get magic by selling their soul to the devil in exchange for powers, and that they used it to bring bad luck and suffering on the people and land around them."

"Are they talking about Necromancers?" Luna asked.

"Necromancers?" Claire echoed, confused. "Those exist too?"

Draco and Ginny wore equal looks of repulsion. "Necromancers are the foulest wizards that exist in this world," Draco told her, "No necromancer is a good person; and some wizards have hypothesized that they get their powers from dread spirits."

"That would make sense. And the muggles wouldn't be able to tell a Necromancer from a normal witch, so they'd attack anyone they saw using magic." Ginny concluded.

"Merlin, that sounds terrible." Draco said with a sigh.

"My mum says all kinds of terrible things about Slytherin though," Ginny said with a frown, "I thought he hated all muggle-born students."

Draco threw back his hand and chuckled dryly, "I thought that too. Blaise laughed when I told him that."

"Why?" Luna asked.

"History is written by the winners, Luna." Draco responded. "Slytherin and Gryffindor got in some sort of fight about something some time after they finished creating the school. Blaise wasn't sure of the exact details, but it was really bad. Slytherin left, and Gryffindor – being oh so noble and chivalrous – did everything in his power to demonize the memory of his former friend. Thus, the history that we've been told."

Claire scowled, before saying thoughtfully, "Well, that at least explains why everyone treats Slytherins badly. It's kind of like Richard the Third after Henry the Fourth usurped his throne. Henry put it out that he killed his nephews, and that he was a horrible baby-killing tyrant. Historians now believe that he wasn't guilty of half the things he was accused of."

"It's remarkable that there are parallels between societies that couldn't be more different," Ginny mused, "I wonder if muggles and wizards can live together peacefully one day."

Draco smiled wryly, "Don't put it on the calendar Ginny. Purebloods barely tolerate wizards and witches born of muggles, they'd flip out at the thought of having to share the world with non-magical people. And right now they are the people in charge of many places."

The four young kids thought about that for a minute, "I want to start recording music tomorrow," Claire said. "And maybe do some painting."

"Sounds like fun." Draco said. "But maybe we should get some sleep now."

Ginny yawned expressively and said, "Sounds like a good idea." They said good night and all went up to their respective bedrooms.

Claire saw a letter sitting on her bed, and it was addressed from "Lupin". Excited, she sat down and opened it. Remus had sent her some pictures of her parents along with a letter. He told her about some of the maurader's exploits back in school and about her mother, Lily Evans.

Claire went to sleep happy, he was doing well and now she knew more about her parents. And about Sirius Black. Claire couldn't shake the nagging feeling that there was something wrong regarding Sirius's supposed betrayal, she'd have to think about it more tomorrow.

%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&

The next morning Claire woke easily enough, got dressed and went downstairs. She went into the music room and looked around. Everything was sitting pretty and shiny, waiting for her. Claire slowly got onto the stage and walked to the microphone. She turned it on, along with the recorder on the sound system.

She stared at the mic for a second, and then the words started coming.

"_I don't care what they say_

_I'm in love with you_

_they try to pull me away_

_but they don't know the truth_

_my heart's crippled by the vein I keep on closing_

_you cut me open and I_

_Keep bleeding,_

_keep, keep bleeding love_

_keep bleeding_

_keep keep bleeding love_

_keep bleeding, _

_keep, keep bleeding love_

_you cut me open,"_

And it kept going. The words just seemed to come to her, along with the image of her dancing with a red head in a massive room during a party, with people laughing and shouting joyously. The image left her feeling very adult, especially when dealing with the redhead, whom she loved, but couldn't tell who it was. Hell, she wasn't even sure if it was a boy or a girl, the image was blurry. Surprisingly, the thought it might be a girl didn't particularly bother her.

A strange thought, but she was already different so what would a little more different matter?

She glanced to the right as she was nearing the end of the song, Luna was standing at the doorway. She smiled and pointed at the piano. Claire nodded, and as she closed the song Draco and Ginny walked in as well.

Draco: "Need a backup?"

Ginny: "Can I play drums?"

Claire laughed and said, "Sure thing."

Her two friends grinned and hopped up on stage. Draco grabbed the second mic in a way that was so dramatic Claire couldn't help giggling, and Ginny looked like a hungry shark as she overlooked the drums. Cute and petite she might be, that girl could be a demon when the energy struck her.

They kept at this for a few hours. Claire's lead voice was like '_angels singing' _as Stormcaller would tell her later that evening, Luna and Ginny were liked fiends on their instruments, and Draco's tenor voice actually wasn't half bad, despite the aspirations he himself had cast on it earlier.

There were several songs, and they just seemed to come to Claire. Luna told her it was the nature of empathetic magic, and that depending on her mood or the shape of their future different kinds of songs would come to her.

'Bring Me to Life' was rattled out right after 'Bleeding Love'. Then there was 'Run' and 'My Hands', two sadder songs when the kids thought about what they had to leave behind. 'Fear' and 'Asylum' came from the pain and fear they had suffered. By far the most fun 'Heart Attack', which was light hearted again and about love. It went on for a few hours.

Claire eventually got tired and had to drink water. Ginny shut off the recorder and said, "You know, we could totally sell that to a record company. Listen to that!"

"It sounds awfully beautiful and mature for kids our age." Luna remarked. "It's like our voices got deeper."

"Lunch, anyone?" Draco suggested.

After lunch they went on a dragon ride around Norway. Draco was right – it was a beautiful place, and there were so many things to look at. The cities and the mountains, the forests and the ocean were all prime painting material. Claire decided that she was the luckiest girl alive.

After dragon riding was painting. Draco was good at this, and explained that as a Malfoy he was expected to have some talent at the arts, for an air of sophistication. Claire let her mind wander when she started to paint after mixing it carefully, eventually she ended up painting the image of innocence, it was herself, Luna, Ginny and Draco with angel's wings and a golden glow around them.

They spent several hours painting landscapes and creatures, getting themselves quite dirty while they were at it. The images at the end were pretty, but in a rather ethereal way, like they were looking into Elysium or one of the nine realms, something far above the world of men.

At dinner, still wearing paint-stained clothes (much to Missy's dismay), Claire glanced in the direction of the one room they hadn't tried out yet and suggested, "How about we try out the ballroom?"

They walked into the ballroom, it was expansive and probably the most beautiful room in the house, and that was saying something. Draco went through some of the records Missy had brought in, he eventually picked something and put it on a record player. He then offered his hand to Luna.

"May I have this dance?" He asked politely with a friendly smile on his face. Luna looked at his outstretched hand with a look of indecision on her face.

"But, but I can't dance Draco," The blonde said, her voice unusually timid. Despite her oddness Luna always had a certain strength of character to her, like the unmovable foundation of the world. Seeing her vulnerable was simply strange.

Draco seemed to think this too, he smiled kindly at her. The smile softened his angular features, made him look approachable and, actually, fairly attractive. "Don't worry...I'll show you how."

Luna's smile lit up the entire room.

Ginny and Claire looked at each other. Ginny took in Claire's ethereal beauty, from her smooth pale skin to her long raven hair to her brilliant emerald coloured eyes, she was like an angel, it was more than the fake, paper-thin images that the media sold them about their 'Savior', it was too soft and powerful to be anything other than angelic and tangible.

To Claire, Ginny was all fire and passion, her entire body from her flame hair to her golden brown eyes was perfect, like a bolt of lightning jagged and white hot. She appreciated the warmth and the light that came from that fire, she was glad to have Ginny, it was like there was a space in her soul that Ginny filled up.

Claire reached out and took Ginny's hands and slowly they started to dance to the music. They were quickly swept up into the beautiful tones of the violin and flew around the room right behind Draco and Luna. It was wild and passionate and Claire could almost feel their souls intertwining.

Eventually, the music slowed to a liting pace, Ginny was still holding Claire close as they tapered to a waltz. Ginny searched her soul-bond's eyes and said, "Something's bothering you Claire, I can see it in your eyes...what's wrong, you know you can tell me."

Claire looked back into those golden brown eyes and knew she could, "there is something...I'll tell you after we're done dancing."

A little while later the runaways holed up in the entertainment room, their designated meeting room, to talk. There was an official meeting room but they decided that would only be used to hold 'war councils' should the need ever arise. It was there she told them what had been nagging at her.

"Wait, you think Sirius Black is innocent?" Ginny repeated.

Claire nodded, "Some times I have dreams, like I can hear my mom begging Voldemort not to kill me before she died," all four of them cringed a bit, "but my other dream was my godfather, Padfoot I called him, came to get me soon after my mother died saving me. He had to give me to someone else because he had to go after the person who betrayed my parents, Wormtail. If Sirius Black is my godfather then he can't have been the one who betrayed my mother and father, he can't be."

"Did you say Wormtail?" Draco asked sharply. When Claire nodded he said, "my dad mentioned when he was really drunk on victory that there was a Death Eater who could was a rat animagus who was also a spy. Called him Wormtail. Also I found this map in the Black vault." He took out a small piece of parchment, pointed his wand at it and said, "I solemnly swear I am up to no good."

Immediately a map appeared, it was the inside of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Firstly the title said "Prongs Padfoot Moony and Wormtail are proud to present the Mauradurers Map." there were a lot of names on the sheet but it was the title that stuck out.

"Okay, so James Potter had three friends Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, they must be the other three names mentioned here." Luna said. "Who is who though?"

"Remus must be Moony, he's a werewolf so the name makes sense." Ginny said. "And since James died that night that only leaves Sirius and Peter. Sirius was Padfoot so Peter must be Wormtail."

"Wormtail, as in the slender tail of a rat," Claire realized.

"Of course. Son of a bitch!" Draco exclaimed, "That all makes sense, Pettigrew was the spy, he gave up the location of the Potters. That crime seen had been perfect – too perfect! If he could turn into a rat, he could have held his wand behind him, shouted that Sirius betrayed the Potters, killed those muggles, transform into a rat and escape unnoticed, leaving Black behind with a wand in his hand and the only person at the crime scene."

"Uhh, guys? It says here that Peter is in Hogwarts right now." Luna said. She was pointing at the Gryffindor dorm. Sure enough, Peter Pettigrew's name was sitting right next to Percy Weasley, one of Ginny's older brothers.

"Shit," Draco said, stupefied. "The little bastard is still out there."

The four kids looked at each other. Claire was in a quandary, they had all sworn they would never return to Britain but she couldn't just let the traitor who got her parents killed walk free while her innocent godfather suffered in the worst prison in existence.

Ginny voiced her thoughts. "What do we do? I suppose we could fly in on Stormcaller and the others and blow a hole in the place, but we'd still be vulnerable to Dementors and we don't know which cell block he's in. Plus if we don't clear Sirius the Ministry might be able to get a cross-border warrant to chase him into Norway."

"We'd have to get Pettigrew." Draco said, already in chessmaster mode, "frankly I don't trust a single soul in Britain enough to want to stick a foot over the border but this calls for drastic measures. Pettigrew must be staying with the Weasley family so he could keep an ear out for Voldemort's return. So he'll probably stay with that family for as long as he could, they're poor enough that they wouldn't question the fact that he's living longer than most rats should as long as it means one of them as a familiar. We can't go to Dumbledore or the Ministry until we have him because Dumbles would brainwash us and the Ministry is utterly useless. I think we should take a single year of school at Hogwarts and grab him while we're there. It'll also give us a chance to deal with loose ends."

"Great. Brilliant. We'll do that then." Ginny decided.

"Draco, speaking of You-Know-Who, how exactly is Voldemort keeping himself alive?" Luna asked.

"Very dark magic, Bellatrix mentioned it a few times when she was really drunk. Lucius never repeated what he heard around me but I think it has something to do with splitting of the soul." Draco said.

Claire blanched, "but that's an abomination."

Draco snorted. "You think he cares? His only concern is becoming an immortal tyrant, no matter what logical fallacies might be involved. We can look into that later. Firstly, we need a plan."

"Don't get sorted into Gryffindor or Slytherin." Claire said. "It will draw lines that we can't afford having drawn around us."

"Don't get involved with any of the teachers. Stick with other students who are in the fringes, or who aren't accepted by others." Draco added.

"There are going to be a lot of powerful people who will want to control us. I think we better kick up our magical learning, I think we should already be past the first grade when we get to the school." Ginny said worriedly. The others nodded. "And make sure our return here is locked in ironclad legislation. No locations will be disclosed."

"I'll ask Missy to find us a map to that magic mine I've mentioned before." Draco concluded. "So, we get Pettigrew and have Sirius released. I'll be sure to reinstate him and my aunt Andromeda back into the House of Black. Then we get the hell back here."

They nodded and put their hands together, sealing their pact.

Draco leaned back in his seat and said, "Who wants to become an Animagus?"

**%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&**

They went into that mine Draco had talked about.

They couldn't tell anyone else what they saw, since spirits who had made visits from the afterlife were known to be irritable. And you never wanted to irritate a ghost.

The first thing the four runaways learned how to do was foster a mind-link between each other. It was complicated magic but their closeness helped foster it faster than any other wizard in the last few decades, and soon with some concentration they could have conversations solely inside their heads. They also learned to be able to tune each other's thoughts out when they weren't having a direct conversation so they could respect each other's privacy while also having this as emergency or secret communication.

They also focused on strengthening their familiar bones with Stormcaller and the other dragons, they could feel their closeness now like a second heartbeat and if need be they could call on the dragon's magic reserves when they needed to make a more 'conclusive' attack, or when they needed an extra power kick. They just had to be careful how much magic they drew from each other so that no one got exhausted or hurt.

It took them several months more study the transformation themselves into animagi, to be sure they were doing it right. It usually took years but these were smart children.

**End Chapter**

**Okay, it's a bit shorter than the other two but it's more of a bridge and an interlude. The next ones will be longer.**

**Read and Review please!**


	4. Chapter 4: Animagus, to Hogwarts!

**Runaway**

**Me: Hello, I'm back! I noticed a lot of people are favoriting this story but not reviewing. To which I plead - please review! Anything from encouragement to suggestions to criticisms is deeply appreciated! I don't bite! Please review!**

**I do not own Harry Potter! Enjoy!**

**Chapter 4: Animageus, Hogwarts**

"Everybody ready?" Claire asked as her friends were gathered around. With the nod they began chanting the spell, and there was a flash of light.

Claire blinked as she slowly morphed into her form, she looked down at herself and was delighted. She was a large specimen of Arctic Wolf, a tenacious survivor and a clever fighter. _'Wonderful,' _she thought happily.

A moment later, Luna came to join her. She was a swan, with beauty that belied her power. She ruffled her white feathers and said mentally, _'I like this new form'_

_'Wow, you're beautiful Luna, not that you aren't very pretty as a human.' _that comment came from Draco. He had become a slender but powerfully built fox. If Luna had been in human form she would have blushed.

Last came Ginny. Claire was amazed, she had turned into a beautiful, snow white Pegasus. She trotted up to the rest of her friends and said through their new mind-link, _'it's weird being taller than you __guys."_

Draco went bug-eyed, _"oh that is just cheating!"_

"_How? I can't help my personality makes me a Pegasus." _Ginny replied teasingly. Draco uttered a false indigent bark while Luna gave a musical caw. Claire simply padded up to her friend and rubbed against her leg. Ginny uttered a snort of pleasure and stamped one hoof, her powerful wings flapping once in a gesture of dominance.

Then they focused on duelling. Traditional duelling was fairly easy to master, what proved to be more complicated was using their inherent talents within their spellwork.

Claire had to grind away many frustrating hours to channel her magic through music offensively, she'd need to put an anti-silencer spell on herself before she did anything. Her music could leave people in trances, send them running screaming or just incinerating them on the spot. She also had the power to access people's memories, which she had subconsciously done the night her parents had died, which was how she knew Sirius was innocent.

Draco's subtle Persuasion power also took a lot of headaches to master. It wasn't the same as Imperious as it wasn't him directly controlling people, he could merely give them ideas or slightly push them in certain directions, they would think the ideas were all their own unless they noticed the irregularities in their behaviour.

Luna's power turned out to be future-sight. She could have short visions of the future, and she just had to learn how to sense when a vision was coming.

Ginny made out like a bandit once again, she discovered that she was also an Empath, but to a different key than Claire. Claire could influence and alter people's emotions, Ginny could strengthen and dampen them. It was potentially a very devastating power but Ginny like Claire couldn't imagine deliberately putting an innocent person in a position like that so they would hold their powers back until they had someone who deserved that wrath.

They learned each other's strategies and how to fight well back to back. Dobby and Kreacher had to take great pains repairing the duelling room over and over, but it was all worth it.

**Time Skip**

With their Hogwarts deadline approaching, their plans still going smoothly. "Draco, I want to start selling my music. With no one working and nothing but rents coming in the Potter Vaults aren't bottomless. Shall I go sell one of my recordings?"

Draco, Ginny and Luna all thought about that before Draco said, "you have a good point, but if anyone asks you're a recluse and all your music comes through the mail. Right?"

Claire had to roll her eyes, "of course Draco. I wouldn't forget."

Claire sent her album 'Bleeding Love' to a record studio, not knowing exactly what to expect. But she certainly hadn't expected what had would happen.

She became immensely popular, in a few weeks she was selling all around both the muggle and the wizarding world. It was crazy. Money started pouring in, Claire was flabbergasted, she hadn't thought her voice was that nice but clearly her fans thought so.

"Maybe you can make stage appearances, but under a glamour." Ginny suggested. Claire smiled and nodded, Ginny always had answers that made her happy.

She could envision them getting married on the balcony of this house, love was a strange and powerful thing and it kept her close to Ginny. She was sure of it at this point, she loved Ginny, it wasn't like a stupid crush like from those silly muggle teen romance flicks they watched for laughs, it was too deep to casually talk about, nor could she just think of it lightly. She thought all that in absolute seriousness.

Her correspondence with Remus had continued, and honestly Claire was glad of it. She loved talking to Remus about the things he was doing and who he was seeing and meeting. He was funny and smart and nice, he'd swung between jobs but was more worried about part-time ones now, the money he got from Claire was enough to support him without him having bigots breathing down on his neck. He was also starting to see a young auror named Nympadora Tonks (thought she _hated _that name, and went just by Tonks or Nym), she was very funny and sweet, not to mention she was a metamorphius. It was nice to have someone to talk to outside her friends.

They had come up with a name to refer to their group as in case they had to go undercover, they came up with the Runaways, which Draco complained sounded like a muggle boy band but went with it after the girls voted for it.

Claire wanted to meet him when she had to go to Britain, she would tell him about Pettigrew when she got there. She didn't tell him before because she was worried Remus might jump the gun when he found out and she didn't want to get him in trouble, they didn't have evidence until they got Pettigrew. Maybe he'd even start visiting her in Norway when she was sure he knew she was taking good care of herself and her friends.

Claire had also gathered up her nerve several months ago and had sent a letter to her godsibling Neville, telling her that she was so sorry about his parents (and about just about everything else while she was at it, Draco said that she still apologized way to much) and that she wished that she could have known him. To her mingled surprise and delight, she got a letter back, although some of the content made her stomach fall.

Neville was so happy to have a friend because he had none, so far his magic was weak and his grandmother made sure he never forgot that he was a failure and didn't live up to the impossibly high bar she had set him, that of his auror parents. She had thrown him out a window to get him so show signs of magic when he was very little, as well as having other 'magic-inducing' abuse heaped on him by her along with his grandfather and uncle.

It made her so mad, great heritage be damned as far as Claire was concerned Augusta Longbottom was no better than the Dursleys.

Unfortunately for Neville, Augusta was too smart and competent for him to run away from home like Claire, Ginny, Luna and Draco had, if he was going to escape he'd have to be far away from her when he made a break for it. He was totally miserable and lacking any bit of self-esteem.

Claire immediately decided that she would rescue him when they went to Britain, Ginny and Luna were immediately on board, Draco complained that he wasn't running an orphanage but his resistance was weak, he didn't actually mind Neville coming with them. Especially due to being the only boy in the group, he'd appreciate having another guy around.

Claire wrote him another letter telling Neville to keep his spirits up, and that she would keep in touch with him. It wasn't enough, but it would have to do for now.

Now when she wasn't practising her magic Claire was working on her music and painting, it was a wonderful pastime and she and Luna made literal buckets of money off it. Ginny and Draco helped out too but they weren't in the forefront as often as Luna and Claire. It restored almost all the money they'd spent and was more than enough to support them.

Whenever she was feeling indulgent she and her friends would have pseudo – fashion shows and mock operas where they would dress up in some of their best clothes and pose, take pictures and pretend to be Juliet Capulet. Their plays were probably one of the first times Romeo had been played by a girl. personally Claire thought Ginny made a good Romeo, though hopefully the two of them would be more careful than the Shakespearean lovers.

Now decidedly more informed and confident, Claire Lily Potter, Draco Regulus Black, the future Ginny Molly Potter and Luna Celeste Black faced their year at Hogwarts with their heads held high and ready for anything that came their way.

%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%

Dumbledore was uneasy, the first year of Hogwarts was about to start and he was at the end of his rope, if the school letter didn't reach Claire Potter nothing would, and he had too much staked on her for her not to appear.

Where had she gone? What had she been doing all this time? What had she learned? Dumbledore didn't have answers to these questions, he hated not having answers to things. He liked being in control of other people's destinies, but Claire had escaped him once. Now he felt like he couldn't control anything, he hated that feeling.

The girl better show up, he thought. Or the Light side will be in serious trouble.

**Time skip**

Hermione Granger was both excited and nervous as she stepped onto the Hogwart's express. She'd always known that she was different, but she hadn't known exactly what she was until Professor McGonagall appeared on their front doorstep. She was finally going to a place where she would belong, hopefully she'd actually be able to make friends there, she'd never had one before.

The train was long and full of many other students, some her age and others older. Hermione felt distinctly out of her element; where would she sit? Who would she talk to?

Suddenly she got shoulder-rammed by someone, causing her to drop her books. The culprit was a red haired boy with freckles; he was wearing second-hand clothes and hadn't been looking where he was going because he'd been searching the compartments for someone. He glared at her and said, "Watch where you're standing mudblood!", and stalked into a nearby empty compartment.

Hermione focused on gathering her books, stung. She wasn't familiar with that word but from the tone of it she was sure it was meant to be some sort of insult. Great, she hadn't even gotten to school yet and people were already insulting her. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.

Suddenly, someone else was next to her, picking up her remaining books. Hermione stood up and saw a girl with long red hair that was darker and closer to brown than the boy's had been, her eyes were a bright blue and she was wearing the same first-year robes that she was, she was about Hermione's height too.

"Here, these are yours..." She handed Hermione her other books. Hermione accepted them quickly with a shy smile, something about this girl made her want to flee into the back of her father's car and never, ever come out. Perhaps it was just her nerves; she'd never talked to another witch before. "I'm sorry about him, he shouldn't have called you that." She shot a glare at the closed compartment door.

"Hey Su, train's filling up fast, we should probably find a seat." Hermione glanced over her shoulder and saw a blonde girl and a boy with dark hair who'd obviously been walking with the redhead, the boy was carefully holding onto a small toad.

The redhead nodded and turned to Hermione, "Do you want to sit with us?"

"S-Sure!" Hermione could hardly believe her luck.

They walked further back and found a compartment, the blonde closed the door and they all sat down. For a moment, an awkward silence fell over them before the redhead decided to break the ice, "Hi, my name is Susan Bones. What's yours?" She offered out her hand.

"Hermione Granger." Hermione shook her hand and managed a smile, "Thanks for helping me."

"No problem. This is my friend Hannah Abbot," she nodded to the blonde girl, "and this is Neville Longbottom."

Neville smiled shyly, "Hi," Hannah was also full of energy and gave Hermione a dizzying grin.

"Are you a first generation witch?" Hannah asked.

"Yeah." Hermione said, she'd read some basic books about wizarding society before she went looking for her school stuff, and it explained that a first generation witch was a witch who had been born to muggle parents. "Is...is that okay?"

"Of course! Totally fine. I just figured we should get this over with, because some pompous idiots have it in their heads that having pure blood is more important than, well, anything. It's absurd. I'm a half-blood, myself."

"I'm a pureblood, but only in name," Neville sighed, "My magic feels so weak, I'm practically a squib."

"I-I'm sure you'll get better," Hermione offered awkwardly. "We're all here to learn after all."

"I'm a pureblood too, but in name only," Susan said. "I don't care about the philosophy at any rate; neither does my aunt and she's the one who takes care of me."

"Her aunt is Amelia Bones, head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement," Hannah explained, "takes her job very seriously. She's one of the only ministry members who can confidently state that she's never accepted a bribe."

"You mean all the others have?" Hermione asked uneasily, she didn't like the sound of that. What was the wizarding government like? She hadn't even thought to ask that, if it wasn't a steady government this might not be a very good idea after all.

"Some have. The government still feeling the after affects of the last great civil war that happened here." Hannah said.

"You mean the war against Voldemort?" Hermione asked, then looked confused when the other kids flinched, "Did I say something wrong?"

"N-Nothing major. We're just not supposed to say his name," Neville explained hastily. "In the war it was taboo, it could tell him where you were when you said it."

Hermione winced, "I'm sorry, I didn't know that."

"No harm done, he's dead now." Susan said confidently. "Yeah, from who-knows-where this guy showed up and became one of the most powerful dark wizards in recorded British history, dethroning the last one, Gellert Grindlewald. He wanted to take over the world and clean it of all 'undesirables' which basically meant anyone who wasn't of pure wizarding blood."

Which meant everyone else. Hermione swallowed. "But they defeated him, right? He's gone now."

"Yeah. But there's the spooky part," Susan said, "You-Know-Who went to try to kill two of the strongest members of the Order of the Phoenix, James and Lily Potter. Somehow he managed to find them, and he killed them. But when he tried to kill their daughter, Claire Potter, his curse backfired and killed him instead."

Hermione's eyes widened. "But the Killing Curse is unblockable."

"yeah, no one's ever survived it before and no one knows how she did it. And it gets worse, after Claire defeated him she disappeared from the wizarding world. Our headmaster, Albus Dumbledore said he would provide for her, but when the day came that she'd turn eight, she just...vanished. The ministry's underage trackers dissolved and they still don't know what happened." Susan said, eyes looking around conspiratorially.

"They know she's still alive," Hannah put in, "because the Potter Bank Vaults haven't been liquidated. But they have no idea where she went."

As it's said, speak of the devil and she may appear. At that very moment, the door slid open.

Four students stood there, and honestly Hermione was a little starstruck. The lead one was a girl who looked, quite frankly, angelic, with pale skin long black hair and ethereal green eyes. Next to her was a sharp-looking blonde boy the same height as the first girl. Next to him was a dreamy-looking blonde girl with blue eyes, and on the left of the first girl there was a firey redhead with brown eyes.

"Hello," the black haired girl said softly, her voice was very lovely too, "I'm sorry but do you mind if we come in here? Everywhere else is full."

"Or has a prat in it," the blonde boy muttered under his breath, eyes darting to the left in the direction of the boy who'd insulted Hermione.

"Sure! Come on in." Hermione said, she wasn't about to turn down company. She couldn't believe how lucky she was, first she had made three friends before she'd even entered the school and now more people were coming into their compartment, it was a little overwhelming to be honest.

They scooted over to make room, it was a little crowded but it wasn't that bad. The black-haired girl and the redhead sat next to each other on Hermione's side while the blonde boy and girl sat next to Hannah and Neville.

"Hi, my name is Hermione Granger, this is Susan, Hannah and Neville," Hermione decided to introduce herself this time, looking hopefully at the newcomers.

The black haired girl smiled shyly, there was a bit of sadness and unease in her eyes but she spoke before Hermione could ask her what was wrong, "My name is Claire Potter, this is Ginny Weasley, Draco Black and Luna Lovegood."

Susan, Hannah and Neville's eyes widened in tandem, "You're Claire Potter," Hannah stammered, "We heard you disappeared."

"It's complicated. I didn't disappear, I ran away." Claire explained, her eyes somewhat downcast.

"We all ran away." Draco added helpfully.

"Wh-Why?" Hermione asked, baffled. These people treated Claire with reverence, why could be so horrible that she felt the need to run away?

"Because it wasn't safe here." Ginny responded. "And honestly, it still isn't, but we're here as an obligation to Claire's godfather, who's been falsely imprisoned."

"Falsely imprisoned?" Susan's eyebrows shot up, "My aunt Amelia is the head of Law Enforcement, she's very careful to make sure she doesn't put innocent people in prison, especially because that prison is Azkaban."

"He was locked up back just as the War was ending, he wasn't given a trail they just tossed him in Azkaban like they were doing with other suspected Death Eaters." Luna explained placating.

Hannah blanched, "He was accused of being a Death Eater?"

"He was framed for treason and murder by an actual Death Eater, who escaped." Claire replied. "We're the only ones who know the truth, so we had to come back and save him."

Hermione was deeply impressed, Claire and her friends looked like they really didn't want to be here but they were coming back to save her godfather, it was so noble and loving, she wished she had someone who'd do that for her.

Susan frowned, the gears in her mind already turning, "Do you have any evidence that he was framed? If you have it I could take it to my aunt, she'd be perfectly happy to reopen the case if it's clear he was framed."

"So far we only have the words of a Dream-Weaver," Draco nodded to Luna, who was staring out the window and murmuring something about crooked fairy wings. "And the identity of the death eater who framed him and did the real killings. Unfortunately for us, he faked his death so we're going to have to grab him ourselves."

"That's really dangerous!" Hermione said shocked, they came here to go after Death Eaters?

"He's a rat animagus, he's been hiding in that form for 11 years now." Ginny said, "he's also a huge coward, we just have to put him in a jar and take him to the Ministry. He doesn't put up a fight if he isn't completely sure he can get away scot-free."

"Besides," Draco went on with a tinge of smugness to his tone, "We'll have the element of surprise, and we're pretty well-prepared for this endeavour."

Susan had been studying him for a long moment before eventually saying, "You used to be Draco Malfoy, am I right?"

Draco's shoulders tensed; in everything regarding their identity these four runaways got light on their feet like they were ready to make a break for it at a moment's notice. "'Used to be' being the most important words in that sentence, Susan." He said. "Lucius Malfoy has done something I cannot forgive. I made sure he would disown me, I'm shot of him and I disown everything he stands for. I'm free of the poison he filled me with, and I mean to stay that way."

Hermione was amazed to hear such a passionate and powerful speech from another eleven year old, especially one who by his own admission had used to be a spoiled, proud brat. She shivered a bit, those dark eyes had seen too much, even she who usually had a hard time reading people could tell that this Lucius Malfoy had done something truly terrible.

"You misunderstand my intention, Draco," Susan said with a smile, "My aunt wanted to thank you for what you've done. Without the Black fortune to fall back on Lucius and his wife are on strained finances, the power they held over the government has weakened dramatically."

Draco smiled at that, though there was a definite feral edge to it, "Did they charge him with the murder of Theodore Nott?"

Susan sighed, "Not yet though certainly not for lack of trying, Lucius still has political friends and Dumbledore keeps meddling with the DMLE's business. But he's living on borrowed time, my aunt's closing in on him and soon there will be no where left to hide." She said that with satisfaction.

Draco smiled coldly, "I'm glad to hear that."

Neville looked at Claire, then stared at the floor and muttered, "Thanks for the letters Claire, it was nice to have someone to talk to who didn't insult me on every other breath."

The escalating bad news was making Hermione increasingly uneasy about wizarding Britain, it was almost enough to make her want to reconsider going to Hogwarts but the train was speeding forward, bringing her there anyway. What kind of world would allow people to treat their children this way? Maybe she should have taken up Beaubaxon's offer.

Claire reached out, took Neville's hand and squeezed it gently, "It's okay Neville...I'm glad I'm getting to meet you. It's always nice to have friends."

Hermione smiled at Claire, who smiled back, it was nice to meet someone so genuine and kind, before taking a nervous breath and asking the question that had been nagging at her since they'd entered their compartment, "You said it wasn't safe for you, here. W-What exactly does that mean?"

Claire's deep green eyes took on a haunted, sad look and said, "It's too dark here, Hermione. No one cared what happened to me. I knew something terrible would happen if I didn't escape."

Hermione and her new friends shivered, and she asked what was on her mind, "Is...is it not safe for us either?"

All four runaways regarded their new friends, and their expressions didn't fill her with hope. "I don't want to frighten you." Claire said softly.

"I'm already scared."

%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&

Hermione, Susan, Hannah and Neville walked in step with Claire, Draco, Ginny and Luna, apprehension and unease having sunken in where excitement and wonder had previously been.

Oh, they were very nice friends, and Hermione didn't regret talking to them, getting to know them, but that didn't change the sense of dread that had come over them from what the runaways had told them.

This place was not safe. Those words kept echoing in her head, like a mantra. I am going someplace where I will not be safe.

Hermione could tell that they hadn't told them the full story, and while she could understand that now she was scared. Susan, Hannah and Neville had all decided at once that they'd help look for this rat animagus; Susan was already penning a draft of a letter to her aunt. The Sirius Black case was a sore spot for the Ministry, it would take some persuading and definite hard evidence.

But despite all this fear Hermione had one thought that kept her from running straight back to the train and demanding to be taken home.

They would help their friends. Maybe everyone else in the British wizarding world had failed the runaways but they wouldn't be a part of that, Hermione hadn't waited eleven years to make a friend to loose them. If the runaways needed to escape they would help them escape, they would hide them from anyone who was looking for them.

Ginny was wearing her hood up, scraping her red hair behind it and keeping her head down. She had said she didn't want some of her old family to see her, though she wanted at least some of her older brothers to know that she was okay she needed to do that on her own time. The other runaways were making similar concealment, they wanted to delay the expression of their identities for as long as possible.

Claire sat perched on her boat, looking skyward. As if in response to a thought, four massive dragons flew overhead, to the shocked exclamations of the other students. They circled over head for a few moments before flying in the direction of the castle.

Hannah took this moment to gape across the water to the boat next to them where Claire and the other runaways were sitting, saying, "you have _dragon _familiars?"

Luna nodded, "oh yes, they're quite friendly actually. We could introduce you later."

Neville was floored, having a dragon for a familiar was a powerful symbol. Claire and the runaways weren't just strange, they must be powerful, too, for the dragons to choose them.

That's why those runaways seemed to ethereal and distant, they had found old magic after they had run away. Hermione couldn't help but wonder where they had gone, Germany? America? Norway, maybe?, each place as unlikely as the next. She wouldn't pry without asking, no. They would tell her if they wanted to.

Hermione hoped that whatever had driven the runaways out of Britain the first time wouldn't come back to haunt their friends, she wasn't sure if her parents would be ready to move if something bad came this way. Because where they went, she'd be following. Someone had to make a stand, even if they had to leave to make their point.

They were going to have to play it by ear, and watch the Headmaster carefully. This didn't bode well for anyone if that was the case.

%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%%&

They were eventually brought to Professor McGonagall. Claire, hood up, had lowered her eyes to the floor, her hair hiding the scar that identified her as the girl-who-lived. All the runaways had hoods, Hermione wondered how they were going to keep the other students off their backs after their names got announced at dinner. It wouldn't be a nice experience for shy, privacy-loving group.

Sorting was going to be interesting. Professor McGonagall began to call out names, "Abbot, Hannah!" Hannah smiled encouragingly at her friends before going up to get sorted. Without even thinking Hermione offered Claire her hand, to her surprise Ginny had done the same.

"Thank you," Claire murmured. The group twitched apprehensively, watching the other students get sorted. Hannah had gotten into Hufflepuff.

McGonagall stared at her paper, her eyes must be deceiving her, slowly she called out, "Black, Draco."

Draco grimaced as shocked gasps and whispers ran through the crowd. Slowly he walked forward and sat down on the chair, where the sorting hat was placed on his head. A boy at the Slytherin table was waving furiously in an attempt to get his attention. Draco smiled absently in his direction, before the hat eventually called out "SLYTHERIN!"

Draco got up and walked over to the Slytherin table, his eyes on Luna, Ginny and Claire. He sat down next to the boy who had been waving and started a conversation with him, looking distinctly uncomfortable as the other kids swarmed around him trying to get his attention.

Dumbledore felt like someone had splashed hot water in his face, Draco _Black_? So that's why Lucius had been in so much trouble over the last few years, obviously much of his money had belonged to the Black family, which he had inadvertently made Draco the head of when he disowned him. Irony was a cruel entity.

It was strange that the hat had taken so long to put him in Slytherin, where else would a dark family scion go to? Those kind of people didn't change.

"Bones, Susan!" "HUFFLEPUFF!" The hat shouted. Susan smiled at Hermione and the others before scampering over to that table.

Claire was getting worried about her placement, she knew that there was a chance they'd be put in different houses but it would be very frustrating, they wouldn't have a lot of time together and she'd be left at the mercy of the other housemates. Claire disliked big crowds, she much preferred it to be just herself, her runaways and her new friends.

"Granger, Hermione!"

"Good luck," Claire whispered. Hermione smiled and nodded and ran up to the chair. She sat there for a long minute before the hat shouted, "RAVENCLAW!" Hermione took off her hat and went to sit at the Ravenclaw table, where she was immediately greeted by a pretty, friendly Chinese girl named Cho Chang. She shook hands, her confidence growing.

Slowly the names continued before a now very puzzled McGonagall shouted, "Lovegood, Luna!"

Dumbledore was bewildered, "But McGonagall, isn't little Luna too young to become first year?"

"I'm magically ahead of my age." Luna said, so softly she could hardly be heard. She refused to look at Dumbledore, Claire knew she still blamed him for not saving her parents. "It said I could enter early." She sat down on the stool and had the hat placed on her head. After a moment the hat shouted, "RAVENCLAW!" Luna smiled brightly and went to sit at the Ravenclaw house next to Hermione.

Claire smiled, her mind made up, Hufflepuff represented loyalty and family, there couldn't be a better house for her.

"Longbottom, Neville!"

"Remember, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks, where ever you go must be right for you." Ginny told Neville, who nodded, squared his shoulders and walked up to the stool. He sat down and had the hat placed on his head. After a few seconds the hat shouted, "SLYTHERIN!"

There were more gasps of shock as Neville took off his hat and went to sit next to Draco. The young Black heir smiled and offered him a seat.

"I admit I'm surprised, Neville. I was expecting to get stuck here all by my lonesome." Draco remarked, shaking Neville's hand again.

"I want to show everyone I'm smarter than I look, I won't be pushed around any longer. I'll let my cunning take me to where I need to go." Neville said determinedly.

"That's the spirit," The Italian boy who had waved to Draco earlier said, "A lot of people automatically leap to the assumption that we're all Death Eaters in training, but cunning can be used for good too and we're going to prove it." He offered Neville his hand. "Blaise Zabini, welcome to the Slytherin house."

Neville took the outstretched hand and shook it, this year was just getting better and better, "Neville Longbottom, I hope to have a good first year."

Dumbledore looked like he'd swallowed a wasp, Neville's parents had been firm aurors on the Light side, why was he sorted into Slytherin? That must be a mistake, he had almost been the chosen one, he should have been in a Light house! What was going on? His controlled world was spiralling into chaos and they hadn't even reached the most important name yet!

Claire and Ginny were the only two runaways who hadn't been sorted. "No matter what happens, stay next to me," Claire whispered, she didn't want Ginny anywhere other than right by her side.

"Potter, Claire!" A great silence fell over the massive hall. Everyone stopped and waited to see the destroyer of the Dark Lord. Dumbledore had leaned forward. Ginny squeezed Claire's hand, transmitting her courage and her love, as Claire slowly let down her hood and walked towards the stool.

Professor McGonagall was watching her with a combination of relief and worry as Claire sat down and had the hat placed on her. "_Hmm..." _she heard the hat speak in her head, "_plenty of courage and nobility, good for Gryffindor...cunning, too, wouldn't go out of place in Slytherin...and oh, my, you're a very intelligent girl, Ravenclaw would love to have you...and loyal above all else, prime Hufflepuff material...I admit, I'm a little stumped! You'd do well in all the houses...are you one who will break down the walls created in this community?"_

"_There's already a lot of expectation placed on me," _Claire responded mildly, _"and honestly, I don't feel safe here, but I can't leave without saving some old friends and family who are here." _

"_Hmm...I see...well, in that case, better be _HUFFLEPUFF!"

There was a moment of shocked silence before everyone at the Hufflepuff table sprang to their feet and started cheering, smiling shyly Claire got off the chair and walked over to where Susan and Hannah were waiting.

"Oh wow, I can't believe you're on our house, I mean no one important EVER gets sent to our house!" One girl said.

"You're so pretty, how do you keep your hair like that?"

"Now, now, let the girl breathe!" A nearby boy said. "Don't swamp her, I know you're excited that the girl-who-lived is here but give her some space!" He smiled at her and said, "Cedric Diggory, glad to have you Claire."

"Thank you." Claire said, her voice still soft. She looked across the table to where Ginny was still standing in the hall. She locked eyes with her friend, _"Ginny, no matter where you're sorted, we stand with each other first, I know you miss your older brothers, don't be afraid to talk to them." _

"_I know Claire but I'm scared, I love daddy and Fred and George and Bill and Charlie, but I don't want to leave you and go back to the Burrow! What if they hate me for running away?"_

"_They love you Ginny...they won't force you, but don't ignore them. You're lucky to have living family members who care about you." _

"_She's got a good point," _Draco said, _"Can't really argue with that Ginny, besides what's the worst that could happen? You have to run away again? I'm sure Lucy will get you out of that just fine."_

"_We'll never abandon you Ginny." _Luna finished firmly. Ginny smiled brilliantly at them and took a deep breath to steady herself.

"Weasley, Ginerva." Ginny's smile immediately turned into a scowl when she heard her full first name being used.

"Ginny?"

"Ginny!" There were shouts from the Gryffindor table, Claire looked over to see two identical redheaded boys yelling Ginny's name, they must be Fred and George, she thought. The other redhead simply gaped, not calling her name and not even looking particularly happy or relieved. That must be Ron.

Ginny walked up to the hat, which was placed on her head. A few seconds later it shouted "GRYFFINDOR!" There was a cheer from the lion's table, Ginny looked wistfully at her friends before walking over to the lion's table.

Ginny had been bracing herself, immediately she was swept up in Fred's arms (or was it George? It was a bit hard to tell them apart, especially after she hadn't seen them for four years). "Ginny! You're alright! You've been gone for so long, we missed you!" Fred said happily.

"We're so sorry about what mum did, we are, dad and Bill have been furious almost consistently since you vanished, it's kind of scary actually." George added.

"Where the hell have you been?! Mum's been going berserk! And what the hell was up with those pictures? Who's paying for those clothes? How could you buy that stuff for yourself and just leave the rest of us behind?" Ron demanded indigently, "we deserve nice things too-"

"Shut up Ronnikins." Fred and George said fiercely at the same time in that uncanny ability to speak together. Ron shut up. Fred finally put her down and ruffled her hair, "Dad'll be glad to hear from you."

Ginny smiled weakly, "I know."

**End Chapter**

**Well? How was that? I wanted to see what could happen if the runaways made more friends in the other houses. After all, Claire isn't the only person Voldemort causes pain for. As I said, I won't know unless you review!**

**Review please!**


	5. Chapter 5: Other Runaways, first Classes

**Chapter 6: Letters, Other Runaways, Classes**

**Gryffindor Dorm: **

Ginny was popular that evening, it was pretty disorienting after first being squashed under all her siblings and then living peacefully with just three other friends and a couple house elves. In the common room, she was surrounded by other Gryffindors while she was trying, (emphasis on _trying) _to write her father and Bill a letter. Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan were two of the new boys, Lavander Brown one of the new girls.

They asked her questions about Claire and why she ran away, she was evasive about all her answers, she didn't want to answer for her soul-bonded.

Percy had been right indigent when he saw her again, calling her ungrateful and spiteful for running away from home and then refusing to tell her mother where she went. Lavander threw a piece of pie in his face and Oliver Wood told him to sod off.

Ginny smiled gratefully, maybe Hogwarts wouldn't be so bad after all.

She was a little scared to be so far away from the other Runaways, as they were starting to refer to themselves, it was daunting after being with them for what felt like her entire life. She chalked it up to nerves, the room felt tiny compared to her room at Black Mansion, but she was here for a higher purpose and she would manage it.

She picked her bed when it was getting late and sat up on her bed, sketching what might be her next painting while trying to think of a battle plan, she knew that Ron now had Scabbers, who was really Peter Pettigrew. It was a deeply unsettling thought, she'd lived a good bit of her childhood sharing her house with a mass murderer. She discarded the thought of just going over and snatching him, because she didn't know what to do next.

"_Hi Ginny," _Claire's voice gently intruded on her thoughts, Ginny let out a pleasant sigh. _"How is Gryffindor?" _

"_Not that bad, the kids have been nice so far though they have been crowding me a bit. Percy and Ron are being utter toerags but Fred and George were happy to see me, I hope that Bill, Charlie and dad will be happy to."_

"_I think they will be, and if they aren't we're still here, like we always are." _Claire said.

"_Wow, some evening eh?" _Draco asked teasingly.

"_Yeah, I wasn't expecting to make four new good friends right away." _Luna said. _"Hermione was really nice, and I like Susan, Hannah and Neville." _

"_So we get one guy for every three girls? That's just not fair! What are we dudes supposed to do?" _Draco complained.

"_What's the matter, Draco? I thought two young boys would love to be surrounded by pretty girls their age." _Claire replied teasingly.

"_Not all of us are perverts!" _Draco protested. _"Besides, I already have my eye on one girl." _they could practically sense Luna blush.

"_About them, Claire you said before that you wanted to save Neville from his grandmother, does that mean he'll become a Runaway too? If so, does that mean we should open that to Hermione and the others too?" _Ginny asked.

Claire thought about that for a little, all four of them were unprepared to simply let people into their closest circle, it was their emotional centre and they didn't want to risk it, but Hermione and the other's friendship was so close for having just met them, in fact it kind of felt like their original bond when they met in the airport.

"_We won't do anything right away," _Draco decided, "_If they get close enough we'll let them in, but Luna's right, they feel real and genuine, not like Dumbledore, who is just radiating repressed anger tonight." _

"_I felt it too." _Luna volunteered.

"_I know," _Claire said, _"I haven't decided anything yet, but I'm not adverse to having more friends. It will just make things a little complicated." _

"_Ron has Scabbers now," _Ginny said, drawing attention to the reason they were here, "_I could grab him at any moment in the dorm itself, but then we won't have a plan and I don't want to risk alarming him and giving him a chance to run away." _

"_Susan's aunt Amelia is very dedicated to justice, and Sirius wasn't given a trail," _Claire remarked thoughtfully, _"Maybe we can convince her to reopen his case and give him a trail, and we'll pop up there with Pettigrew. When they see Pettigrew alive it will confirm his story. We have the weekends off, we could go to the Ministry and see her." _

"_Right. I have classes with Susan all day tomorrow, I can ask her about it," _Luna said, proving once again that she could be very focused and matter-of-fact when she wanted to be.

"_What should we have her tell Bones?" _Ginny asked.

"_That Sirius Black didn't get the trail he was entitled to. As the Black Head of House I can demand she rectify this, then we just need to grab Pettigrew and get to the Ministry hearing." _

"_Hopefully Remus will be there," _Claire said.

"_I'm sure he will, he was friends with Sirius and I think he'll be as glad as any of us to find out that Sirius is innocent." _Ginny said firmly.

**Ravenclaw Dorm**

Hermione was ecstatic, she and Luna weren't in the same dorm as most of her friends but they had made a friend in Cho Chang and Padma Patil, two foreign exchange students, and checking her time table she had classes with each of her friends houses on alternating days, she'd be able to see them regularly after hours as well.

"Why is everyone so surprised that Claire was sorted into Hufflepuff?" Hermione asked when she heard yet another set of boys muttering about it. She'd been confused by the shocked silence that Claire's placement had earned, and so far no one had offered and explanation for it.

Cho looked surprised by the question, "Everyone was expecting her to be sorted into Gryffindor, Dumbledore himself said it was a certainty, her father and mother had been in that house and the Potter family had been in it for several decades, plus she was the destroyer of Voldemort. It just seemed so obvious."

"Well, Claire is one of the most loyal people I've ever met, I'm not surprised she went into Hufflepuff." Hermione declared, shifting through her many school books.

"Do you know Claire Potter very well?" Padma asked curiously.

"We've been living together for a while now," Luna said.

"Well, I met her on the way here, and I learned so much about her in one meeting, she's a little secretive and shy but she's also very kind. There's so much more to her than the pinup everyone's expecting her to be, she's such a fiercely loyal individual, it's amazing really." Hermione said.

"I know, it just goes to show you shouldn't expect people to meet such general moulds, everyone is different, loyal people and smart people can be heroes as well." Cho said with a smile. "If you listened to the other students you'd think only heroes came out of Gryffindor and only Death Eaters and Dark Wizards came out of Slytherin. But there's so much more to life than that, right and wrong aren't that selective."

Hermione decided in that moment that she liked Cho a lot! That was such a bias-less and objective statement to make, it was clear Cho was smarter and more mature than most kids her age.

"I agree, whatever secrets Claire might be keeping are her business, it wouldn't be fair of us to expect her to solve all our problems like I have a feeling some people here are," Padma scowled in the direction of some of the other students.

Luna's shoulders tensed suddenly, and she followed where Padma was looking. Her usually dreamy expression was gone.

That statement, inexplicably, gave a heavier weight to what Claire had said earlier about Britain not being safe.

Hermione resisted the urge to shudder as she remembered what she had read about Claire in _Greatest Wizarding Events of the Last Decades, _where she was hailed by Albus Dumbledore as the savior of the wizarding world. Now that she was thinking about it, a rock was beginning to settle at the bottom of her stomach at the wording of that statement.

She had an eerie feeling Padma was right, these people wanted something from Claire, her power maybe even her life. And somehow, somehow, she didn't know why she thought so but it was tied to the night she survived the killing curse, she was sure of it. There was too much of a coincidence there, someone surviving the Killing Curse for supposedly the first time ever and her being proclaimed a 'saviour'.

Hermione swore she wouldn't let anything bad happen to her new friend, she'd protect her if it was the last thing she ever did.

**Slytherin Dorm**

Neville felt distinctly out of his element among the classy Slytherin students, despite having Draco and Blaise guiding him among his fellow students. He felt tiny and woefully under dressed, everyone here seemed so sharp.

Draco was welcomed into the dorm with some relieved cries, some saying they'd thought he was dead with others apologizing about Theodore and still others remarking that Lucius shouldn't have treated him like that.

"It's nice to see you again," Blaise remarked before giving his friend an irritated look, "what was up with that? Gone for a couple of years and I hardly ever got letters."

"Sorry Blaise, it took me forever to get the Goblins to cough up your new address and then it took owls forever to get over to your place." Draco said. "I wish muggle email was available to us. It's much easier and faster to communicate that way."

"My mother talks about that some time," Blaise remarked. "She says muggles are smarter than we give them credit for."

"That's absurd," That voice belonged to Pansy Parkinson, and Neville could tell straight away they weren't going to get along very well. There was a haughty look to the way she talked and held herself. "Muggles are primitive, they can't do things better than we can."

Draco merely raised his hands in surrender, "Believe what you like, Pansy, but don't expect to wake up easy if you get shot by a gun. If you somehow don't get hit in the vitals, because then you're dead for sure. Those things are lethal, even to us. I would know."

Pansy glared at him, "So you betrayed pureblood policies to become a muggle-lover? What happened to my betrothed?"

Draco's dark eyes narrowed, "You're betrothed died when Lucius Malfoy beat me half to death, forced Veristrum down my throat and left me on the street. I have disowned those archaic and outdated beliefs. It's got nothing to do with you."

Pansy stared for a few minutes, stunned. Draco turned on his heels and said, "Neville, the guy's dorm is this way."

Bothered by that confrontation, Neville followed without an argument. Blaise leaned over his friend's shoulder when they were out of Pansy's earshot and said, "Be careful Draco, we may not all be Death Eaters but a lot of us still believe in the Pureblood Supremacy. They respect you as Head of House Black but I don't recommend talking about muggles lightly."

Draco smiled wanly at Blaise, "you're still a good friend Blaise. I'll bear that in mind. Come on, there's so much for us to catch up on."

"Yeah." Blaise smiled back, "you've got a lot of explaining to do, you saved my life that year and I'd like to know what else happened."

Neville followed them and they both stood through their head of house Severus Snape's opening speech, Severus eyed him with a slightly curious but otherwise impassive look before sending them to the dorms.

When there, Draco amazed Neville by wandlessly putting up a silencing ward around their three beds and said, "Well, it's hard to know where to start..."

"A-Are you okay with me hearing this?" Neville asked.

Draco tilted his head slightly, "Friends don't keep secrets from each other Neville."

Neville's smile nearly split his face, Draco had directly called him a friend. He was having such a good day.

Draco then began to tell them the story. He told them about Lucius forcing Veristrum down his throat, about being found by Ginny and Luna, meeting Claire at the airport. He told them about Norway, about their mind-link, and about getting Malefor as a familiar.

"You have a dragon familiar." Blaise echoed flatly. Draco nodded smugly. "Wow, just...wow! Geez, you're a lucky bastard. Theo would have been impressed."

Draco's eyes became slightly downcast as usual at the mention of his old friend. "Yeah, he would have." He steadied himself and then continued, about Claire's music, Luna's Dream-Weaver powers, the dancing and laughter and finally the training they'd done before coming here.

"You became a fox?" Blaise asked curiously. Draco nodded and before Neville's eyes transformed into a decent sized red fox.

Blaise clapped and said, "I don't suppose you feel like telling me how you did that."

Draco transformed back and said, "Come on, I just said I don't keep secrets from friends. Throw me a bone here, Blaise."

Blaise chuckled, "I know Draco, it's just a little disorienting. You aren't exactly the same Draco I grew up with." his eyes grew serious, "but I think that's a good thing. It's terrible, what's happened to you and those girls, but you took it and you've risen anew."

Draco nodded and gave a non-committal snort.

Neville said, "So...can I be an animagus too?"

Draco turned and looked at him. Then he chuckled and slapped a hand on Neville's shoulder. "Sure, Neville. Sure. It'll take a while though.

**Hufflepuff Dorm**

Claire, Susan, and Hannah had been avoiding questions for ages now. They'd been introduced to their head of house Pomona and were then sent to bed. Claire was a little battered by all the questions and felt a little lonely with all her fellow Runaways in other houses, but she knew she'd see them tomorrow. They planned how to snatch Pettigrew and asked Susan to write to Amelia Bones.

Claire was feeling a little claustrophobic, surrounded by so many students, but Susan and Hannah helped her through it. The other kids were very inquisitive about why she ran away and why she had come back. One pureblood asked if it was because of her muggle relatives. Claire had flinched at the accuracy of the question, and was grateful that Susan forcefully moved the conversation elsewhere.

She was afraid of what the other kids might do if they knew how the Dursleys had treated her. The people were expecting her to be some sort of heroine, what if she couldn't deliver on that? What if they knew she was weak? Timid? What if they thought she couldn't do it? What would they do?

There were no real answers to any of these questions, but for the moment they seemed to simply be nerves. After all, this was the house of loyalty.

The other Hufflepuffs had been nice to her so far, maybe this year wouldn't be as bad as she had feared it might be.

Looking back at the year later, Claire would appreciate being reminded not to tempt fate.

**The next day**

Claire woke up slowly, with someone gently shaking her shoulders, "Claire, wake up! It's Susan, breakfast will be on soon!"

Disoriented, Claire tried to figure out what time it was. Then she remembered abruptly, she was at Hogwarts and today was the first day of lessons. "I'm awake!" She cried, jumping out of her bed, startling Susan, who'd been trying to wake her.

"Oh, good," Susan said, a bit startled by the sudden movements. "Come on, Hannah's waiting for us."

Claire nodded and hastily got dressed. Then she followed her two new friends down the moving staircases and into the hall where they had been sorted yesterday.

"_Morning Draco," _she thought when she saw the male runaway walk into the room with Neville and Blaise, "_Everything okay so far?"_

"_I've been getting some dark looks from pureblood agenda supporters," _Draco reported, "_They haven't done anything yet, but we'd best keep our guard up." _

"_Noted. Luna, how's Ravenclaw?" _Claire asked.

"_It's been nice," _Luna reported, "_Hermione's very driven in her studies, she'd very focused but she has a hard time seeing the other world. She spent the entire morning protesting that there was no such things as nargles." _

"_Hermione sounds very dedicated to rationality and logic," _Draco said, _"She'll be like that for a little, but give her time."_

"_Hi guys," _Ginny joined in the conversation, "_What classes do you have first?"_

"_I have Potions," _Claire volunteered.

"_Transfiguration," _Draco said, "_I hope Professor McGonagall isn't _quite _as scary as some of the older Slytherins make her out to be!" _

"_I have charms," _Ginny thought. _"Good luck, everyone." _

%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&

The moment the door swung open and Professor Snape walked in, Claire was feeling nervous. The Potions Master looked very intimidating, and his opening speech didn't help at all,

"There will be no wand waving and silly incantations in this class. I don't expect most of you to understand the magnificence of potions class and the ways it can be applied, except a select few," at this he glanced right in Claire's direction.

Claire swallowed. There was something in his expression that made her feel like he was staring straight through her. There was something in those black eyes that were boring into her...it looked like recognition. But he had never seen her before...but if her parents had been alive they would have been the same age. Did he know them? Remus said she bore a strong resemblance to her mother.

It wasn't just that, but the emotions in those eyes...there was some bitter pain and anger, and somehow Claire wasn't sure if it was all directed at her.

Snape began rollcall and eventually came to her name, "Ah, miss Claire Potter. Our new...celebrity." He said simply, a sharp edge to his voice. One Ravenclaw boy snickered darkly.

Claire flushed, feeling uncomfortable and put on the spot. "Sir?" She said timidly.

Snape gave her a calculating look, "Let's see if you're as perfect as we've been told..." A snicker went through many students, causing Claire to flinch slightly. "Potter, what would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Claire's mind spun at the question, she tried to remember what she'd learned over the years at Black Manor but the answer didn't come to her, "I..."

Snape shook his head and tutted, "I suppose fame isn't everything," The snickers grew louder, Claire wished she could melt into the floor. "Try again, where would a find a beozar?"

Claire was relieved to remember this one, "It's from the stomach of a goat, sir, it gives people immunity to poisons."

Snape raised an eyebrow. "That's better. But speak up, you sound like a mouse." The snickering started again. "Don't fear for your future too much, I'll make a potions master out of you if it's the last thing I do. I won't have any layabouts in this class."

Frightened and hurt, Claire hid her face in her text book.

"Professor Snape is such a _jerk!_" Susan shouted when they were a safe distance from the classroom. "What gave him the right to put you on the spot like that? Those questions were way to advanced to be asking first years!"

"It's okay, Susan, it's not serious," Claire mumbled. She tried to make sense out of the way Professor Snape looked at her and treated her, but everything was coming up blank. It had been a long time since she had felt hunted like that; that feeling had used to be synonymous with Claire Hunting. But what was the pain? And why?

"I don't believe that!" Hannah said, watching Claire with worry, "you looked really unhappy. We should talk to Professor Pomona."

"What? No!" Claire said quickly, coming out of her stupor. She didn't want anyone thinking she was a baby wouldn't break down into tears over something that trivial. "I'm _fine,_ really. I don't want any more trouble or attention. Just – just leave it, please. I don't want him getting any worse."

Susan and Hannah were wearing identical expressions that clearly stated they might be willing to let it be for now, but they weren't going to forget about it.

Claire let out a quiet groan when she remembered she had potions three times a week, this year was beginning to look more difficult than she had anticipated.

%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&

"_Good morning Claire,"_ Claire smiled as she sat down, she could hear Ginny's voice in her head and knew her friend was at the Gryffindor table just behind her. She turned and smiled at her soul-bond.

"_Morning Ginny. How'd you sleep?"_

"_Roughly. I got used to having a big room by myself, and I had nightmares." _She sensed Ginny's unease, _"They're about Pettigrew, he's lived in our house for so long and now I keep imagining him transforming back and killing us." _

"_I know. It'll be okay Ginny, we'll get him before he has a chance to hurt any of your brothers." _Claire said.

"_I second that," _Draco joined the mental conversation, sounding as though he was going into Black Head-of-House mode. "_We have after-hours free, I'm getting Malefor and going straight to the Ministry. There, I'm going to threaten to withdraw all of House Black's support from Fudge and his little crew unless they reopen the case and give Sirius Black a trail. After he's cleared, I'm going to reinstate him and Andromeda." _

"_Hermione made an animagus-proof jar for me yesterday, during transfirguration. Asked Professor McGonagall for help with it. She looked really surprised, but she showed her how, for extra credit apparently. Hermi said we could catch Pettigrew with it." _Luna remarked. At the Slytherin table, Draco choked on his drink, Neville slapping his back in concern.

"_She did WHAT? Already?" _He asked, incredulous.

"_That's impressive. Draco, are you okay?" _Ginny asked.

"_fine! Just surprised." _

"_Hermione is very smart," _Luna said. They all agreed with that, Hermione caught onto the spells used around her and replicated them with expert ease. She was probably one of the smartest girls in the entire school. "_Though she has a hard time understanding Wakersprouts and Nargles. It's a pity. Cho and Padma are also very nice to me, Padma stopped someone from stealing from my trunk yesterday." _

That didn't surprise Claire. Hermione was a very rational person, and wouldn't easily comprehend Luna's strange worldview. She was glad to hear Luna was making new friends, too. She'd met Cho and Padma in Charms and Potions and she liked them, though Padma's sister Pavarti could grind on the nerves sometimes.

"_I'll get him after dinner." _Ginny said, making up her mind. "_Draco, you go make the call, tell them you mean business." _

"_I will," _Draco said determinedly.

"_We should tell the others," _Claire said. "_I think they'll want to be involved too." _

"_Got it. We'll tell them on the way to class." _Everyone started getting up and moving towards their classes, "_Good luck." _They cut their conversation and followed their houses.

McGonagall watched them leave and remarked, "I think it's very nice that Claire and her friends are staying together despite being in different houses." She said. She'd ranted at Dumbledore for a long time after Claire disappearance and after she reappeared for the first day of school, she knew he'd wronged the girl and while she was disappointed Claire wasn't in her house she was glad she was further away from Dumbledore.

"Yes," Pomona agreed, "Petty rivalries keep the houses far from each other, this friendship might help bring the entire school together again."

Dumbledore said nothing, but pretended to agree with Pomona. It was important for the houses to keep separate but he couldn't tell them why, it was the only way for his plans to adequately go forward. He'd tried to get the girl to speak with him after school but she always retreated to her dorm, or he got menaced by one of the four dragons that had been circling the school.

He'd tried to have them shooed off until he received a massive shock, those four dragons were the runaway children's familiars and they were staying there to protect them! A wizard hadn't had a dragon familiar since the time of the Founders.

It was a testament to how powerful the girl was. But her friendship with Draco Black was troubling. Ginny Weasley and Luna Lovegood were negligible, it would be easy to guilt them into serving the light, but Draco, Black or Malfoy, was born a Death Eater, and once a death eater always a death eater. Sure, Severus had reported that the boy had spoken highly of muggles and of the Potters themselves at different times, but surely that was just some sort of ploy. He'd have to do something about the boy.

The reason he'd sent Claire to live with the Dursleys was easy, he wanted her to be able to shoulder mistreatment without protest, he wanted her to know what it was like to be the little person, and most importantly he couldn't afford her getting a big head over her fame. The Dursleys certainty wouldn't have let that foster, but clearly they'd been a bit overzealous, because she'd run away. Dumbledore wondered what else she'd discovered those years away from Britain. She'd found out about the potions due to ascending to her position in House Potter, but that wouldn't have told her everything about his plans. Sure, it was a major setback, but surely he could explain everything under the banner of the Greater Good. She'd understand eventually.

Oh, how wrong he was.

%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%%&

Draco waited outside with Susan. Susan watched the boy, impressed. From the moment they'd entered the Ministry building Draco had transformed from the friendly, gentle boy he usually was to a fearsome, unmovable Head of House who took no crap and was expecting his audit, now.

He'd brought her over on Malefor, and frankly Susan would die to ride on a dragon again. It was so amazing.

A few minutes later, both Fudge and Amelia emerged from the doorway. Susan waved to her aunt, smiling, before taking on a serious expression.

Fudge stared at Draco for a minute. The young Head of House had crossed his arms and was watching him with a cool expression. "G...Greetings, Draco Black, Head of the Ancient and Noble House of Black." He said carefully, "How can I help you?"

"I wish to know why my family member, Sirius Black, was denied a trail that he is explicitly entitled to in this country's constitution?" Draco asked sharply, getting straight down to business.

Fudge froze and stared at him for a few seconds, before saying, "the evidence was overwhelming..."

"Overwhelming or not, there may have been other considerations and no matter what the initial evidence looks like a trail is still required!" Draco snapped. "As Head of House and family, I demand you rectify this, lest I withdraw my support from this establishment! Set the trail for this evening, and it better not be rigged or you will regret it. For you sake, I hope we meet this evening!"

With that Draco nodded curtly to the Minister and left the building. Susan put a letter in her shocked Aunt's hand. Amelia Bones watched Draco leave uncomprehendingly, "That boy has changed so much. It's incredible."

"Fate has an interesting way of working," Susan replied. "Auntie, Claire thinks she's found new evidence for Mr. Black's trail, he is her godfather."

Fudge perked up visibly at the thought of not only pleasing the new Head of House Black, but Claire Potter as well. "Y-Yes, well, Amelia, it sounds like we have work to be doing, let's get that trail ready."

Amelia nodded. Susan gently clutched her aunt's hand and asked, "How's the Nott case coming?"

Her aunt glanced back in the direction where Draco was standing out of earshot, waiting for Susan. "It's going well, Lucius tried very hard to cover his tracks but I found two of the associates. If I manage to drag confessions out of them I'll have something to get Fudge to convict him of. If Draco could testify at that trail, there would be no way for Lucius to escape."

Susan smiled, "I'll ask him auntie, see you this evening."

**End Chapter**

**Okay, the pacing is feeling a little awkward, but I wanted to get some of the usual stations of canon out of the way before diving into the actual story, which will take a massively different path from canon, canon nazis beware. Anyway, it took me a while to work out how Snape might treat Claire if she looked much more like Lily than like James. It struck me as perhaps a little more painful, actually, because she'll be there not just as a reminder of Lily marrying James but a constant, living shadow of the woman he loved and failed. His initial attitude won't be consistant, though.**

**Read and Review, please!**


	6. Chapter 6: The Rat and the Trail

**RunAway**

**Moon: Hello everyone and welcome back to runaways! I say, I'm really surprised by the response this story has gotten. Thank you! And I must ask again - review! Please! And now that that's settled, here's the next chapter! I do not own Harry Potter and would be a good deal richer if I did.**

**Chapter 6: The Rat and The Trail**

Ginny carefully crept into the boy's dorm, Luna right behind her. As an underage learner they only had to take half the classes the older kids were, which was very convenient. She just had to see if Ron had kept Peter in his cage or if he'd left the rat to wander.

"There," Luna whispered. Ginny followed her friend's finger to the cage next to Ron's bed. Sure enough, Scabbers was inside. Ginny's stomach turned over when she saw what she had thought was her family's pet.

She stunned the rat. The way it's eyes bulged out in the split second when it realized they were onto him would have been comical in any other situation, and it brought Ginny a certain amount of satisfaction.

She and Luna ran to the cage, Luna opened it with magic. Ginny roughly grabbed Scabbers around the middle and tossed him into the jar, which Luna slammed the lit on. Ginny quickly spelled it so that when it opened and dumped Scabbers on the floor he would be forced to transform back into Peter Pettigrew.

The girls smiled at each other and dashed out of the dorm.

After dinner, they rushed to the bottom of the stairs. They were quickly joined by Claire, who came careening out from direction of Defence Against the Dark Arts class with Hannah right beside her. At the same time, Hermione, Neville, Blaise, Cho, and Padma appeared at the top of the stairs, and upon seeing the rat ran down to join them.

Claire stared at the rat, hatred in her eyes. It was strange, Claire had never shown hatred of a person in the years Ginny had known her. Hannah, Cho and Padma put a hand over their mouths as they stared at the jar and its content.

Hermione crossed her arms and looked vindicated, smirking as she watched the rat struggle in the glass jar. "Don't bother," she told him coldly, "you can't transform and the glass is too thick for you to break through. You're a traitor and are going to be rewarded like a traitor deserves. You'll be taking Sirius's place in Azkaban."

The rat squealed and scrambled to the other side of the jar, as far away from Hermione as he could get.

Blaise's eyebrows raised as he examined the jar, "Remind me never to make you angry, Granger." Hermione beamed.

Blaise looked at Scabbers for another moment and let out an exclamation, "well I'll be damned."

"What?" Hannah asked, her voice a little shaky.

Blaise pointed to one of Scabber's feet. It was missing a toe. "They said the biggest part of Pettigrew that they could find was his finger. He must have cut it off before blowing up the street. You got to admit, pretty clever. Very Slytherin." The Italian boy's eyes narrowed. "Not that we'd want this kind of filth in our house."

Padma looked like tears were threatening to come forward, "How could you?" She demanded of the rat, accusingly. "How could you betray them? Voldemort was after their child! Say that to yourself – baby! He was going to kill a baby! And you were going to let him!"

Cho looked equally horrified and teary, but she looked angry too, like Claire. "They were your friends," she told the rat angrily, "they protected you and they had been by your side for years, and you put a knife in your back. And you killed thirteen innocent muggles to save your own hide. How could you? You're despicable!"

The rat was uttering a long string of squeaky noises, like he was trying to protest but was still a rat and therefore they couldn't understand him.

"Some people will do anything for big friends, someone who can protect them from everything." Claire explained for him, green eyes utterly devoid of warmth as she stared at the rat. "They're only worried about themselves. Nothing more."

"Well, we've got him now." Neville declared with a confidence that would have been foreign to him a few weeks ago. "No more running away for Peter Pettigrew. Or other former Death Eaters."

The group nodded firmly, and walked outside. Claire whistled, and the three dragons flew down. Draco appeared with Malefor. "Everyone, take a seat," She instructed, before climbing on Stormcaller's back.

Ginny gently stroked Lucy's scales before getting on. Luna climbed onto Aletha, still carefully clutching the jar with the rat. The other kids looked gleefully at each other, before slowly getting on the backs of the different dragons.

"We won't be too heavy for them, will we?" Cho asked anxiously, patting Aletha's scales. The dragon uttered a playful snort and gently batted at the Chinese girl with one of her wings.

"They'll be fine. They've carried heavier loads then a couple of schoolkids." Draco replied.

**Chapter 7: Saving Sirius**

The Ministry was a huge building, filled with people and stuck in the twelfth century. Horribly medieval, all of it. The dragons perched on the top of the buildings, burning orange eyes staring daggers at anyone who entered. This trail was a popular one, lots of people were pouring in to see the person who had supposedly betrayed the Potters to Voldemort. Needless to say, they were going to be in for a big surprise.

Draco grimaced as he looked out at his seat; it was far too close to where the Ministry people sat and he didn't appreciate crowds. He lead Blaise, Susan, Hannah, Neville, Cho and Padma up to their seats. Cho looked around and asked in a hushed voice, "Where are Claire, Ginny, Luna and 'Mione?"

"They'll be coming in with the rat," Draco said. "After all, there's nothing I like more than a good show."

Blaise gave his friend a dry smirk, "Well Draco, it looks like some of you is still the same."

Draco shrugged and gave Blaise a mock glare, "I'm allowed to have my own tastes in theatre, aren't I?" All the kids giggled at that.

%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&

In a cold, dark cell in Azkaban a skinny, large black dog was lying on the stone floor. He raised his ears and heard someone coming. In a moment, the dog transformed into an equally battered man.

"Black! Stay where I can see you, you're being taken to the Ministry." Two aurors came into the room, cuffed Sirius's wrists and began to lead him towards the docks.

"What's going on?" Sirius asked, his throat cracked a bit from lack of use.

"The new Head of the House of Black is demanding that you get a trail." One of the aurors said. "Don't worry, you'll be back in your cell soon enough."

Sirius Black's mind was spinning, the Head of House? But who could that be? Had Lucius somehow gotten control? No, Lucius would never demand he get a trail...what was going on?

When they brought him outside to the cool clean air and onto the boat, Sirius felt like he was alive again, the good feelings coming back, along with the memory of Claire. Where was his goddaughter? Was she alright? Who had taken care of her?

Too many questions and not enough answers. Sirius tried to figure out how he was going to convince the Wizamgot of his innocence, if he couldn't he would throw himself over the side of the boat and drown, that was a better option than going back to Azkaban.

%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%

Claire and Hermione read through the spell one last time, just to be careful. This was one spell they couldn't afford to have go wrong. Luna was still holding the jar containing Pettigrew while Ginny was on lookout. Claire and Luna were hiding in their animagus forms behind various desks and such while waiting for the moment to present their evidence. It was a frustrating wait, Claire wanted to see her godfather.

"Look! That's Remus, right?" Ginny hissed, directing their attention to some of the passing wizards. Sure enough, a better-dressed and serious-looking brown-haired man walked past. Claire smiled happily, she was hoping he's show up.

"Yes, that's him." She said.

"I see my dad," Ginny added in a small voice. Author Weasley was easy to spot, he had the same bright red hair as the rest of his family. He was holding a book and looked serious and lost in thought.

"Your mum isn't here," Luna noted, "Do you suppose he wouldn't let her come?"

"Mum hardly leaves the house," Ginny snorted, "She believes that's a woman's only place. She wouldn't come to a trail unless it involved our family."

"There he is," Hermione whispered, pointing to the far right.

Claire and Ginny both peeked from around the desk. Sirius was being lead into another door. He looked terrible, but he had just come out of Azkaban. Claire watched him anxiously, warmth instinctively welling up in her chest. That was definitely him, though he looked decidedly worse for wear.

"Great!" Ginny hissed. "_Draco, we see him, he's coming in! The trail will be starting very soon!" _

"_Got it," _Draco confirmed, "_I'll tell you guys exactly when to come in, the prosecution will go first, then us. Let me tell you, that lawyer won't be looking so cocky when you come in with the rat." _

"_Great." _Claire said. "_Standing by." _

%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%

"Sirius Orion Black, you are charged with treason and fourteen counts of murder." Amelia Bones's voice rang through the chamber, silencing the chatter of voices. "How do you plead?"

All eyes turned to Sirius, who tilted his head back fiercely and said, "Not guilty." He then told them the story of what actually happened.

There was an explosion of voices after this declaration was made, Sirius tuned it all out, eyes searching the crowd. He saw Remus there, and Dumbledore was in the jury. Lucius was sitting not in the jury but in the audience, staring very hard in the direction of the Head of House as though trying to set him on fire with his mind. He turned his head to the right where his Head of House was sitting and his eyes nearly bugged out.

Lucius's son Draco was watching him with slightly worried eyes. _He _was Lord Black? That could only have happened if his father died or disowned him as stated in the Black marriage contract! But Lucius was a fervent believer in the Dark Lord, why would Draco demand he get a trail? Why would Draco help him at all? What in Merlin's name was going on?

Sitting with Draco was bunch of kids his age. There was an Italian boy there, it took him a second to recognize him as Samantha Zabini's son; her family was a major power in Italy. He could see Frank and Alice's kid Neville sitting with him, and Amelia's niece Susan as well.

They were friends? The other kids must be friends of theirs too, what in Merlin's name had happened when he had been locked up?

"As far as I can see, the case is obvious!" Fudge declared, snapping Sirius out of his thought process. "Unless there is new evidence that supports your preposterous declaration!"

There was more shouting and gleeful calls for him to get Kissed, but a single female voice silenced them in an instant.

"Evidence exists." A young girl declared.

Silence fell, punctuated by shocked gasps. Sirius twisted his head around to see his little goddaughter Claire Potter walking into the chamber, flanked by a redhead, a blonde and a brunette, green eyes raised defiantly.

There was a cry of "It's Claire Potter!" and the room went crazy again, people were shouting and pointing, intermingled mutters of 'looks like her mother, with her father's hair' and 'when she get back'? And 'who are those other girls'?

Amelia slammed the judge gravel on the table several times, "Order! There will be order, or Merlin help me I will have this room cleared!"

The clamour died quickly. Claire and her friends walked up close to Amelia's desk, just in front of Sirius's chair. Claire cast him a quick look, and it was like getting hit by lightning. He had to restrain tears, there was unmistakably affection in that look.

"Peter Pettigrew never died." She said firmly. Dead silence fell, people looking at each other and then at her, eyes wide.

Claire turned to the blonde, who held up a jar for everyone to see. Sirius's jaw dropped and a malicious joy roared through him, they had him! They got the little bastard!

Remus was leaning forward in his seat, recognizing the rat immediately. Peter was alive! So then Sirius...Sirius was innocent! Inwardly he was both relieved and angry with himself for believing that Padfoot could betray James and Lily. He also was applauding Claire mentally, how had the girl found him?

"This is his animagus form," The blonde said. "He was hiding out at our school, so we've brought him here, for you to see that you've done this man wrong."

The brunette unscrewed the lid, glared at the rat and hissed, "don't bother trying to escape, you'll never get out of this building." she snaked one hand in and seized the rat.

Claire drew her wand, and along with the redhead they cast a spell. The rat wreathed and twisted and turned back into Peter.

Gasps sounded throughout the house, it was clear that only Amelia's threat to clear the room was keeping it from descending into total anarchy. Claire calmly put her wand away, while the redhead drew daggers at the rat with her fierce brown eyes. Belatedly Sirius realized she was one of Arthur's children. "Tell them what you told me Peter." Claire said calmly.

Peter looked among the four children surrounding him, pathetic, frightened and pleading, but none of them budged an inch. The brunette glared threateningly at him.

Arthur's daughter snarled, "did you or did you not betray James and Lily Potter to You-Know-Who?"

Peter broke down sobbing, it was a bizarrely disturbing sight, a man crying like a baby. "I...didn't mean to! He would have killed me, or worse, I was so scared-"

"And you framed Sirius. Why?" The brunette ordered, brown eyes flashing with a fearsome wrath.

"H-H-Had to, th-there was n-nothing else I could do! C-Cut off my finger – I had my wand behind my back – blew up the street – but it wasn't supposed to be like that – I just wanted to run, but the Dark Lord had men following me, I can tell you their names -"

"Aurors! Detain that man!" Amelia ordered, Peter squealed, transformed and tried to run.

Before Sirius's amazed eyes, Claire's eyes narrowed and she transformed into a snow white wolf. She lunged across the room and pinned Peter to the floor under her paw in a single graceful jump. The crowd was gasping again, everyone leaning in to get a look.

Amelia's aurors rushed in and stunned the struggling rat. Claire padded backwards as the aurors picked him up before transforming back. She brushed her dark hair out of her eyes.

"I-well-I believe-I say, this completes the story Black has told us?" Fudge stammered out. Sirius snorted at how easily he changed sides.

"If you'd kindly wait a few seconds before jumping to any more conclusions," Amelia deadpanned, Fudge immediately turned an unhealthy shade of purple. Draco snickered where he was sitting. "Where did you find Mr. Pettigrew?"

Arthur's daughter took a deep breath to steady herself before saying, "I'm Ginny Weasley...a few weeks after the slaughter a rat turned up at the doorstep of my family...we didn't question it since we were not very well off, we just accepted that one of our family could have a familiar."

"Arthur?" Amelia asked simply, directing her attention to the Weasley father. The man nodded dazedly, still watching his daughter. "I see. Sirius Black has been found innocent and an enquiry will be made as to why he did not receive a trail. Case dismissed!"

Now the noise truly began, the children near Draco started cheering and applauding, this set everyone else off, there was a cacophony of noise in the room. Sirius got a good laugh out of Lucius Malfoy's expression; the helpless fury on the pompous death eater's face was a welcome change of pace. Dumbledore's expression was serene and unreadable.

The chains holding Sirius down were released, he stood up and made his way up to Claire.

The little girl turned around, she looked tired and relieved but healthy. Sirius gave her a quick look over before sweeping her up in his arms, Claire uttered a delighted squeak as he spun her around before setting her down again. Ginny and the other two girls grinned.

"I'm so glad you're okay." Sirius said emotionally, stroking Claire's long black hair. He hugged his little goddaughter. "It's so good to see you again, Claire."

"I'm happy to see you too, Padfoot." Claire whispered, burying her teary face in his shoulder. For a minute he just stood there, hugging her. Footsteps, the other kids from the stands came to join them, shouting and laughing.

Claire took a step backwards and smiled at him, "Sirius, these are my friends. Ginny-" the Weasley girl smiled and waved, "Hermione Granger-" the fierce brunette cracked a grin and waved back, "Luna-" the dreamy-looking blonde girl blinked twice and then nodded to him, "and these are Draco, Susan Bones, Hannah Abbot, Neville Longbottom, Cho Chang, Padma Patil and Blaise Zabini." The other kids all smiled and said hello in turn.

"Sirius!" Sirius glanced up to see Andromeda running out to meet him, her young daughter in tow, "you're free! This is so great!" Andromeda embraced him. Sirius smiled a bit, Andi was the only relative he had that he cared to address as such. It was good that she knew that he was no spy.

At that thought, he turned towards Draco Black. "Draco? It's my understanding that I have you to thank for getting a trail at all." Sirius said.

"Actually Sirius, I've done more than that," Draco said, "I've reinstated you and your cousin, miss Andromeda, back into the house of Black, you're back in the family entitled to everything that comes with that."

Andi's eyes widened, and Sirius could feel the tears coming again, "Thank you so much," She said,

"Thanks kid," Sirius said in a light manner, though his tone was heavy with gratitude. Draco simply grinned back at him, whatever Claire had done to this kid it had changed everything about him for the better.

"Ginny!" Arthur's voice came from somewhere behind them, Sirius turned around to see Arthur and his eldest son Bill walking towards them. Ginny broke off from the group and ran over to them, Arthur swept the girl up into his arms and cradled her, before handing her to Bill to do the same. That was odd, had something happened between them?

Sirius glanced to his left, Remus was approaching him. The two of them stared at each other for a minute before Sirius cracked and hugged his old friend. "I'm sorry I believed that you did it Sirius." Remus said emotionally.

"It's okay Remus, it was crazy times back then, I should have told you about the switch. I'm sorry too."

Remus let him go and turned to Claire, who ran over and hugged him around the middle. For a second Remus looked surprised before his expression cracked and he hugged her back.

"It's nice to finally meet you Remus," Claire said softly.

Remus ruffled her hair, "Nice to see you again, Claire...you wouldn't remember the last time, you were a baby when I last saw you...you've gotten so tall." He smiled affectionately at her, "What was that when Peter was trying to escape? You're an animagus?"

"Yes, me, Ginny, Draco and Luna all are. We were going to show some of our friends how to transform too." Claire said, "It isn't that bad once you're absolutely sure of what to do."

Sirius grinned, James would have been delighted to see his daughter follow in his footsteps, "So you're an arctic wolf?"

Claire nodded and smiled.

"Uh, guys we'll want to get out of here before we're ambushed by reporters," Cho warned them.

"Listen to that, there's a storm of them out there," Blaise said, gesturing towards the door. "Probably dozens of them out there now."

Susan sighed, "There were going to be reporters anyway, might as well get it over with."

Hannah gave a resigned groan but agreed, "Yeah, better here than being ambushed at our houses later."

Neville frowned at the doorway, "We can ward them off while you guys escape if you want."

"We'll get trampled," Padma mumbled, watching the door. The noise was getting louder, and Sirius didn't blame her for finding that idea daunting.

"If we're lucky! Reporters can be vicious," Tonks said.

Sirius looked down at Claire, who just gazed back at him and nodded, "What's the worst that can happen? Let's go meet the press!"

"Stick together," Andromeda warned the kids, who immediately bunched together and braced themselves as they, as a group, walked out the door.

Sure enough, they were immediately assaulted by bright flashes and everyone babbling. Claire squeaked and flattened herself against Sirius. Ginny, Luna and Draco walked closer to her seemingly on instinct. Blaise, Hermione and the other kids did their best to form a protective barrier between the recently acquitted Black and the sea of press.

You could hardly hear any of the questions being asked due to everyone screaming at once. Sirius could see Fudge running off, surrounded by reporters and clearly trying to stave off some uncomfortable questions and smirked a bit to himself.

"Everyone calm down! Please excuse us." Remus said, helping them part the crowd to start walking back towards the exit.

"Sirius Black, now that you've been acquitted, what are you going to do?" One reporter asked, pushing to get close enough to be heard.

Sirius replied, "Right now I am desperately in need of real food," He drawled, earning snickers from the kids and a weak smile from Remus.

"Do you know that Claire was placed with guardians so fearsome she ran away, not just from their neighbourhood but from Britain itself? What do you have to say to that?" The reporter asked, watching Claire and her friends anxiously.

Sirius looked sharply at Claire, who gave him an apologetic smile that didn't reach her eyes.

_WHAT?_

"Sounds like you have a story to be telling me," he said sternly, feeling like he'd been hit by a bolt of lightning. That Claire had just ran away was a bad enough indication of what her guardians were like, the fact that she felt so threatened she had searched for (and found) a way to flee the _country _was ringing multiple alarm bells for him. Remus's sad expression indicated that he knew why, and it didn't look pretty.

"Look," Sirius shouted into the crowd, "I know you're all curious as to how this clusterf**k all happened, but right now I am in dire need of a meal and a chat with my goddaughter. I will have an interview taken tomorrow, your questions will surely be answered in the _Daily Prophet_ tomorrow!"

There was a cheer in the crowd, Blaise, Hermione and Susan valiantly fought to part the crowd so they could escape to the Floo. "Do your parents know you're here?" Sirius asked the other children, belatedly noting that they were here by themselves.

"Uh, yeah, we all owled them together this morning," Cho explained. "We told them that the Black Head of House offered to give us a tour of the Ministry after dinner, to show us what our wizarding government looked like."

Sirius glanced at Draco, who shrugged. "It was the first excuse that came to my mind, besides I do think it's a good idea for muggleborns and half bloods to see exactly what goes on up here so they don't get blindsided later. Don't worry, I cleared it with the Deputy Headmistress."

Professor McGonagall had thought it was a good idea to show what the government did, although what transpired today probably wasn't the demonstration that she had in mind.

They all stepped into the Floo and Sirius yelled, "Leaky Caldron!"

%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%

One long, harassed explanation later Sirius managed to order himself some food and the kids some treats at a long table set up near the back.

"Alright, start talking," he said to Claire, "What do you mean, 'ran away from Britain?' HOW did you do that, and why?"

Claire took a deep breath and told him all about the Dursleys and how they treated her. Remus put a hand on his shoulders, it was a good thing too because Sirius's famous short temper probably would have sent him dashing to the muggle's house and he didn't want to get into more trouble with the DMLE right after being acquitted.

While they were talking, Sirius noticed out of the corner of his eye that Susan was saying something to Draco, who went rigid before nodded vigorously. Susan sat up, looking pleased as punch.

"That bastard whale," Sirius snarled, "Mark my words Dursley, I might not kill you but I promise I'm going to make you sorry you hurt my goddaughter."

Remus merely nodded, "I think I might have an idea for that, Padfoot." Sirius gave a wicked smile, it took a lot to set Remus off, but when he finally had too much he went straight for the throat. It was almost enough to feel sorry for the Dursleys...almost.

"Sounds cool," Blaise said. "What's next on the menu?"

"Luna?" Claire asked, her voice sharp with worry.

Everyone turned towards the blonde. She had gone rigid and was staring at the wall like she was seeing something a thousand miles away. Suddenly, a dribble of blood came out of her nose.

Draco vaulted off his chair and was at her side in an instant, some small part of Sirius wondered how the hell the kid could Apparate but the girl was their main concern, Ginny and Claire immediately got up and went to her side, the others kids were starting to freak out,

Hermione looked ready to panic, "She's bleeding inside, oh god, she could have a concussion or something. When did that happen? We need to get her to a hospital -"

"Hermione," Ginny said, her voice trembling sightly, "It's okay. Luna's having a vision."

"You said before she was a Dream Weaver," Neville said, staring at Luna, "I didn't realize that extended to visions."

"That looks intense, will she be okay?" Hannah asked anxiously.

Draco didn't answer. His face was white and drawn with worry so stark Sirius was taken aback. He didn't think young kids could love each other that way.

A second later, Luna gasped and flopped backwards into Draco's arms, knocking her chair over. Immediately the kids, Sirius and Remus flooded around her. Luna blinked a few times, her eyes unnaturally clear, before focusing on Sirius.

"Do..." she whispered, "do you know anyone named Regulus Black?"

**End Chapter**

**Aaaaaand cliffhanger ending! How was that? Good? Bad? Please let me know!**

**Review please!**


	7. Chapter 7: Horcrux

**RunAway**

**Moon: Hello everyone, I'm back! Might be surprised by how fast I'm updating, but I actually had everything up to chapter 9 written before I started posting. I just wanted to see if anyone liked it. Anyway, here's the next chapter. Honestly, I can't remember exactly how when Tonks became an Auror, but for the purposes of this story (especially later chapters) she's going to be a few years older than she was in canon. I do not own Harry Potter and enjoy chapter 8!**

**Chapter 8: Horcrux**

Claire saw her godfather stiffen when Luna said the name, eyes widening. "How..." He blinked slowly, "Regulus was the name of my younger brother...he became a Death Eater and died one...why do you ask?"

"Didn't...didn't die a Death Eater..." Luna said softly.

"What do you mean?" Sirius asked sharply, shock written plainly in his eyes.

"Luna," Draco whispered in a soft, gentle voice, "what did you see?"

"I..." Luna's gaze was harsh and stared straight ahead, "I heard him...You-Know-Who."

Dead silence fell over their table at the Leaky Cauldron. The children exchanged horrified looks, Sirius, Andromeda and Remus froze up and Claire swallowed. Hannah and Neville unthinkingly grabbed each other's hands for comfort, Susan, Hermione, Cho and Padma bunched together while Blaise watched Luna was a serious expression.

"He said...that he'd found the secret. To living eternally." Luna continued, her voice growing steady as she recalled her vision. "He took Slytherin's locket from its hiding place at Hogwarts...he put it down on a desk and called for a prisoner, a muggle-born...and when he was brought in, You-Know-Who murdered him." She blinked once, a single tear splashing her cheek. "I can't tell you what else happened, it was so horrible...but, in the end, a part of Voldemort was moved to that locket."

The blood had drained out of Nymphadora's face, and eventually she whispered, "Horcrux?"

"What?" Remus asked tensely.

Tonks took a deep breath, fear and disgust evident in her eyes before saying, "Mad-Eye told me about them during my training...it's some of the darkest magic in existence...it's what you do when you break your soul apart and seal it in an object."

Padma looked sickened, "No wonder he's so crazy, a soul isn't meant to be divided like that...he'd loose his humanity and his sanity every time he split his soul."

Tonks looked sharply at the young girl, "You know about these?"

"Sort of," Padma said quietly, "At home it's standard for children to know about even the darkest magics because of the dark lords that tend to crop up around there. I read about it in a history book."

Luna took a deep, shuddering breath, bringing the attention back to her. "He hid it in a cave...and he forced a Black elf to drink the potion that caused him a lot of pain...but Regulus wasn't happy about this, he cared about Kreacher and hated how You-Know-Who treated him...so he went into the cave with Kreacher, and drank that horrible potion...and switched the lockets, put a fake one in the font...but he didn't make it out of the cave...he ordered Kreacher away, and to destroy it."

Her eyes rolled up in her head and she went slack in Draco's arms.

"We need to get her to St. Mugo's." Draco said harshly, having not said a word through the entire conversation. "We'll call Kreacher afterwards."

%&%&%&%&%&%&&%%&%&%&%&

Claire sat next to Draco, who was holding Luna's hand and waiting for her to wake up.

Everyone had crammed themselves into the ward. Blaise's mother had Floo-called him and asked him to come home; Blaise politely refused and explained why. Cho, Padma and Neville had needed to do the same with their guardians, the ensuing shouting match that had occurred between Neville and his grandmother was impressive to behold. Eventually Neville wrested the right to stay until Luna woke up.

"She'll be fine," the mediwitch informed them. "She's just having a bout of magical exhaustion, it happens to Dream-Weavers often. She should wake up soon."

"May we have a moment?" Draco asked, his voice strained a bit. The mediwitch nodded and left the room.

At this, everyone turned to Tonks. "Why would anyone make a Horcrux?" Neville asked the question that had been first on his mind.

Tonks gave him a humourless smile. "Because, as long as you have a Horcrux, you cannot truly die. Your body may be destroyed, but you will survive as a spirit, and you will be able to come back again and again as long as your Horcrux survives."

Hermione paled dramatically, "Wait, you mean You-Know-Who is _still out there_?"

Tonk's grimace deepened. "If he has a Horcrux? Then I'm afraid, yes."

"B-But he's just a spirit, right?" Hannah asked, shivering. "H-He can't hurt us like that, right?"

"He's a spirit...for now," Andromeda said seriously, "But I don't think someone who's gone so far as to make Horcruxes would stop there...he'll be looking for a way to come back."

"He'll go after Claire right away, won't he." Ginny's voice was dead quiet. Claire felt the earth shift under her feet, and her mind went back to the note she had found in Petunia's drawers all those years ago. _If he returns, she must be ready to face him._ It wasn't a question, and Sirius would only confirm it.

"She was his downfall last time." Sirius said, his grip on his goddaughter's hand tightening automatically when he thought of that night. "He wouldn't want her to be around to foil him twice."

Claire shivered and realized that he was right, and fear crept into her heart. When would he try again? How would she keep her friends safe? How would she survive? What was she going to do?

Ginny immediately took Claire's other hand and squeezed. "We won't let him get near her," she said decisively.

"Over my dead body," Sirius agreed, Remus nodding in his support of this. Claire's eyes were wide as she took this in, her heart swelled at their love for her but it was matched by a terror when she realized that there was a chance that protecting her was the last thing any of her friends and family might do. It certainly had been the last thing her parents had done.

"I think he'd find that quite agreeable," Tonks said flatly, as if she had read Claire's mind, before continuing determinedly, "But this time we have a head start on him and we know how he managed to survive. If we get rid of them – however many their might be – before he comes back, then we might be able to get rid of him, this time for good, before he can do the damage he did last time around."

"You should go to the Auror's office as soon as possible, Dora," Andromeda said, shaken. "They need to know about this right away."

"Wait," Susan said suddenly. Everyone turned and looked at her. "My aunt would love to look for Horcruxes," she said calmly, "but we're forgetting something. Not only are we yet to have proof of a Horcrux, there's also another consideration. Lucius Malfoy."

Draco went rigid, the way he always did when Lucius came up in a conversation. "He's not as powerful as he used to be," Susan continued, "but he's still in tight with the Minister, Fudge. Fudge listens to almost everything he says. If we try to do anything about the Horcruxes, he'll know about it, and he'll blow the lid on it. Fudge would probably refuse to let auntie send out any aurors to look for them, and the Dark Lord will be forewarned."

Blaise said something in Italian that Hermione was willing to bet wasn't very polite. "Susan's right," he said grimly, "and he's not the only Death Eater who dodged Azkaban by claiming to have been under the Imperious Curse. They're still out there, waiting for their leader to return. A few of them – his closest – probably know about the Horcruxes and are charged to keep them safe. If they know you're looking for them we'll be back to square one."

"We'll have to look for them ourselves, then." Sirius decided. Andromeda didn't look very happy at that idea, and Claire didn't blame her, but it seemed to be the only good option. "Do we have any idea of where to look, other than with Kreacher?"

Everyone took a moment to think.

Then something else that was quite important popped up, "Did your Horcrux lesson include how to destroy them?" Claire asked Tonks quietly.

"Yes," Tonks replied immediately, to the relief of the others. "Silver that has some goblin enchantments work, so does Fiendfyre, though I wouldn't recommend that spell because it's very difficult to control. Powerful venom, like that of a Basilisk or similarly massive snake will also destroy it."

"The Sword of Gryffindor." Claire muttered. When everyone stared at her, she said, "Gryffindor had a sword, it was very old and said to be very powerful, the goblins helped make it, it might be able to destroy Horcruxes."

"Where could we find it?" Remus asked tensely.

"It's in Hogwarts...somewhere. It will come to someone who shows true Gryffindor qualities." Hermione said automatically, clearly she'd read it in one of her books.

"Can't be that hard to find, then." Ginny said hopefully.

There was a soft sigh. Everyone turned towards Luna, who's eyes opened. She sat up and said, "I feel fluffy, what happened?"

Draco let out a relieved sigh and released his grip on her hand. Luna glanced at him and smiled.

"You had a vision, Luna. Scared the life out of us." Cho said. "Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm feeling fine, just a little stiff." Luna confirmed. She looked around, "What are we going to do about the Horcrux?"

"Why would he just have one?" Blaise asked mildly. When Tonks looked at him in shock, he responded, "What? Slytherin philosophy. One Horcrux would protect you...but it gives you one vulnerable point. Never go into a situation without a backup...so, he would make more than one." He grimaced. "I'm afraid there's no way to tell how many he might have made."

Silence descended. It was a sickening thought, and a frightening one. What Blaise had mentioned was very likely, but that meant not only did they not know what the other Horcruxes looked like, but they weren't sure how many others there were or how to find them.

"There will probably be some outside school," Sirius said, brain already in motion. "Me and Remus don't have anything better to be doing, and we've got experience behind us. We'll go out searching for them as soon as we know what we're looking for. Andi, I'll need to you stall Dumbledore, tell him anything you'd like except the truth."

"Why aren't we telling Dumbledore?" Andromeda asked, blinking.

"He left me to rot in jail for ten years, so my trust of him is a little short." Sirius explained coolly. "You up to that Remus?"

Remus nodded, "It's been a while since I've had anything interesting to do." He said. "I appreciate a chance to stretch my legs."

"There will probably be something inside the school, information, clues anything." Ginny said, "we can look for them after hours, we'll borrow the Map and look for it. He did go to Hogwarts, after all."

"We can ask around his old haunts," Draco continued Ginny's train of thought. "Ask the people there if there's anything fishy around. Maybe there's something in his ancestral house. Anything could help, especially if we don't know what we're looking for."

"It almost makes me wish we could shut the school down for a little." Neville said. "It would be easier, fewer questions asked."

"We'll all pitch in. Old news and information could prove handy," Blaise picked up the strain, "I could ask my mother to provide us with something."

"As long as you promise Samantha won't murder me and string me up," Sirius said, shuddering. "And tell her I really am sorry about the Yue Ball!"

Blaise chuckled, "Mother told me about that incident, Black, I assure you, she's over it. Despite what the rumours of what happens to all her arranged husbands might be."

Hannah's eyebrows shot up, "Is your mother really a 'Black Widow', Blaise?"

"I can't tell you anything for certain," Blaise replied lightly, with a tone that said the exact opposite, "but I can't remember the name of my last stepfather."

"I'll be on the lookout in the auror office," Tonks chimed in. "There might be a pattern we could look follow." She grimaced. "Our only real lead is Regulus Black's death, and Luna's vision hasn't left us with much. Kids, you better get back to Hogwarts. Draco, please tell us where the nearest Black house is, Sirius, Remus and I will go straight there."

"Great. Let's get to work," Cho said determinedly.

Draco gave Tonks directions while the kids piled in the direction of the Floo. "Horcruxes," Cho muttered, "I never would have dreamed someone would actually..." She shivered.

"It's sick," Neville muttered, "But You-Know-Who has always been pretty twisted. He'd do anything to get what he wanted."

"Anything." Claire murmured, her mind still spinning as she tried to guess where the Horcruxes might be.

"It's very inconvenient to not be able to trust authority," Hermione said belligerently. "How could they not imprison Malfoy? After all the stuff he did!"

"He had some deniability and friends in the right places," Cho said darkly, "That's how that kind of people always get away with stuff.

"Then how do we take him down?" Neville asked.

"We'd have to get serious dirt on him," Ginny said, "Something serious that overwhelms anything he might have done in the past. I'm pretty sure he has the Dark Mark on his arm, but how to get anyone to see it is the problem..."

"Minister Fudge must be corrupt, too, if he's letting people like Malfoy waltz around free," Hermione growled, "We need a new minister too. Can't Professor Dumbledore do something? He is Head of the Wizamgot, after all."

Ginny and Claire shared a look. Despite his dubious methods Dumbledore was still the man who stood up to Voldemort when no one else could. He would do anything to defeat the Dark Lord, even if it meant hurting Claire. Perhaps they could leave a few hints that could get him to do something that could help their overall mission.

%&%&%&%&%&%&&%&%%&%&%&%&%&

Voldemort hated the position he was in.

He hated being stuck at the back of Quirrel's head, the useless fool hadn't done anything productive since his arrival here. He couldn't read Claire Potter's mind, though that should have been child's play. Where had the girl found a way to raise her mental defences? It was a frustrating setback; the girl wasn't as weak and naive as he had expected her to be. Her gestures and the tone of everything she did made that obvious.

Lucius was officially useless to him; he might still have the ear of the Minister but even the slightest pressure sent the the man scurrying. He'd become a fool among the other purebloods after he'd disowned his son. The imbecile! Forget pitiful, he'd murder the ponce himself if he ever came within ten years of the school.

He would not be denied his glorious return. He'd have to find some able pureblood who wouldn't make the same petty, idiotic mistakes, one who would remain loyal to him, one who wouldn't lean on his fortune to stay healthy while he suffered as a mere wraith.

But before he did any of this he needed a real body; it wouldn't do to continue to latch onto bodies like this. He couldn't afford to keep subsiding on unicorn blood. He had to kill the girl before she became a threat. As soon as possible.

Right now, he needed spies within this building, since he no longer had the assistance of Malfoy's spawn, he'd have to find new ones.

%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%%&%&%&%&

Ron Weasley was not a happy boy.

Not only had he made an idiot of himself in front of Claire Potter on the train, she'd already been shacked up with the blonde Black heir. Figured, girls always went after the rich jerks and ignored the hardworking, perfect nice guys who deserved them more.

He wanted the girl-who-lived on his arm. He'd finally be able to step out of the shadow of his elder siblings and become someone everyone looked up to, wanted to be. His mother had promised Potter to him, what had she done to screw that up? Perhaps he'd been too forward?

Whatever it was, he'd show her what a true Gryffindor man was like. He'd be the Hero of Hogwarts and Potter would fall into his arms when he saved her from the people who wanted to use her.

He'd have to get the Black boy out of the picture somehow. He couldn't have someone around who'd be a more attractive option to her if he was planning to sweep her away.

The other source of anger was towards his little sister, Ginny. Perfect little Ginny! From the moment she'd been born she'd done nothing but absorb his mother's adoration, and everyone who met her immediately loved her! She was far too fiery for a girl, Molly getting her married off would be the best thing that ever happened to him and the girl had the audacity to run away. She met Potter sooner than him and lived with her for several years, the mere thought made him green with envy and anger. And when she popped up again his brothers were soooooo happy to see her, instead of giving her the thrashing she deserved for running away!

His dormmates were no help, called him rude and cruel and unpleasant. He didn't care, that Chinese girl had deserved it, why couldn't she stay in her own country?

Ron got out _his _diary, which he'd snatched off the Slytherin table a few days ago and started writing in it.

Tom understood him and would help him get what he felt he deserved.

This change in Ron's behaviour and attitude was bewildering to anyone who talked to him, and the reason for it was remaining hidden from view – a diary with the name T.M. Riddle on it.

If he didn't stop writing in it soon, the change of personality would be the least of his problems.

**End Chapter**

**Aaaand that's that! It's shorter than some other chapters but that was kind of the point. Also - hello, reason Ron is acting out. I figured that Lucius would have given the diary to a different Weasley if Ginny hadn't been there, since they were 'blood traitors'. Also, don't worry about Lucius, he'll be getting his soon enough.**

**Review please!**


	8. Chapter 8: The Great Horcrux Hunt Begins

**RunAway**

**Moon: Hi everyone I'm back. I know I seem to be updating fast but like I (might?) have said before I have this completed up to chapter 10 but am updating slowly because of internet issues our mondem seems to have. Anyway, I want to once again plead for reviews! I can't change my work for the better if I don't get reviews! I do not own Harry Potter.**

**Chapter 9: The Great Horcrux Hunt Begins**

Claire and her group of friends were wired and ready when they went back to school. The news of Voldemort's survival was enough to keep them up at night, but now they were the only ones who knew how to deal with the things that were keeping him alive. For the given portion of 'alive', considering he didn't have a body back yet, meaning that they were on a clock-destroy all of his horcruxes before he returns officially.

The problem was knowing where to look. Sirius, Remus and Tonks were looking around outside the school, but they weren't sure where to look. The kids offered to help them out in any way that they could.

It took weeks to find anything at all. Keeping relative secrecy on what they were looking for made it harder to find anything, and there was already scant information about Voldemort from before he became the Dark Lord everyone in Britain feared.

Hermione had handed out the copies of the history books she had been studying before she came to Hogwarts. They poured over them at lunch time, earning weird looks from the students sitting around them and definite glares from some of the Slytherin students.

Draco, after some consideration and a week of no progress, decided to trace You-Know-Who's ancestry. It had taken hours into the night until Sirius finally pried the boy away from the desk and all but forced a sleep potion on him. It had taken a frustratingly long time to dig up anything of value, but eventually Sirius connected Voldemort to a former student from Hogwarts, Tom Riddle.

Remus then took from there. Their search eventually lead them to the old Riddle house where they found something about his parents from the old family tree, which had been crumpled up and hid in a drawer.

His mother had been born Merope Gaunt. They were an old family that claimed to be able to trace their ancestry back to Salazar Slytherin, though many had refused to believe this in later years. It remained unconfirmed since this was not the Gaunt family mansion and such they couldn't see further up the family tree. The Gaunts had originally been quite powerful, but their line had diminished in thanks to inbreeding within the family and poor choices of husbands.

Merope Gaunt herself had been magically weak for a witch. Sirius had asked around the town where she had lived, and honestly when he came back with the stories they'd been telling about her Claire honestly pitied Riddle's mother. Her life had been so bad it wouldn't have surprised her had she declared war on the entire world had she not died giving birth.

Of course, her son was happy to take that position up in her place.

His father, however, was a different story. His father was Tom Riddle Senior, and he was a muggle. There was nothing magical about him.

This boggled Claire, since Voldemort's main philosophy was that purebloods were superior to half bloods and muggleborns. And yet he himself was a half-blood!

So aside from being a genocidal maniac, they could add 'delusional', and 'hypocrite' to the long list of issues Voldemort had.

"That is _so_ going on the front page of the Prophet." Tonks had said when Remus and Draco had told her about this. "If his followers are disillusioned fewer will feel inclined to show up to his resurrection party."

"The Gaunts were a pureblood family," Blaise said thoughtfully, "They'll have a family ring. You said it was missing from the jewelry box? It's connected to his childhood. Maybe that's a horcrux. No one would have thought of that; they didn't know he was connected to them."

"That's...that's a good point." Tonks murmured, sounding distracted. "You should look for strange objects inside of Hogwarts while we're thinking of that."

Claire nodded. "Let's go. My Transfiguration homework won't do itself." the students collectively groaned; McGonagall made it clear she expected nothing but the best of her students, especially bright ones like them, so they got hard homework.

Later, as September melted into October and Halloween drew closer, they kept searching. They had agreed to split up and search different paths and areas when they got back.

Ginny and Claire would go looking for the Sword of Gryffindor. Draco, Luna, Neville and Hannah were going to find out more about Voldemort. Cho, Padma, Hermione and Susan were going to help Claire and Ginny search the school for potential Horcruxes or information.

Ginny waited until it was night before activating the map. Sure enough, the other girls were waiting outside the Great Hall, having deliberately earned themselves late night detention with Snape. Filch was further up the hall with Mrs. Norris.

Ginny carefully slid out of bed and opened the window. She stepped onto the windowstill and threw herself out of it, transforming into her Pegasus form halfway down.

Flapping her massive wings, she swung around to a window in the great hall, transformed back and hissed, "Alohamora," causing it to spring open. She jumped inside, onto the Gryffindor table.

The other girls turned around when she ran over to them. "Great, where's everyone?" Susan asked in a hushed voice. Ginny showed them the map. "Great, let's get into the Headmaster's office."

Slowly, carefully to avoid any of the ghosts that might be patrolling the halls, the girls rushed down the hallways and up to the stone gargoyle. Peeves would be unbearable if he found them out of the dorms now, and a distraction was the last thing they needed right now.

"Cockroach cluster," Claire said. The gargoyle slowly turned back, revealing the stairways. The girls sighed in relief. Getting the password to the Headmaster's office had been a nightmare; they'd had to eavesdrop on Professor McGonagall. That had been much, much scarier than dealing with the Bloody Baron. Ginny felt a little guilty for doing so, but was mollified when they opened the door.

The girls let out discreet, quiet cheers and high-fived before carefully walking up the stairs.

They walked into a large room, filled with books and a desk where the Headmaster usually sat. The picture frames that filled the room were strangely empty; Claire wondered where they might be but decided to count their blessings while they were ahead.

Cho played a few notes on her flute, assuring them that Fawkes was asleep. Then the girls went into different parts of the office, scouring for the sword.

Claire's fingers brushed against a wall, and she nearly jumped out of her skin when the wall slid open. The other girls scurried back to see a font with white strands floating inside it appear from where it had been hidden behind a wall.

"...is that a Pensieve?" Cho whispered.

"Looks like it." Susan said, putting a finger on the stone. "It must be the Headmaster's. Why would he keep a Pensieve, though?"

"He is getting older," Ginny remarked. "Maybe there are really important things he doesn't want to forget about, so he's keeping them here."

Claire looked down at the Pensieve. "...Maybe there's something about Voldemort here." She said. "Something he might not have mentioned. Something he might have overlooked."

Hermione looked nervous. "Guys...I don't think we should touch that, what if there's some way he can tell if other people had looked at it."

"Hermione, we still don't know how many Horcruxes he made or where they are. Maybe the Professor knows something." Padma said. "What he doesn't know couldn't hurt him."

"We still haven't found the sword, though," Hermione pointed out. "Shouldn't we get that first?"

"We can keep looking," Padma suggested, "while Claire looks at this."

"Good point. Anything helps, and we're running short of time." Cho said. Hermione still looked nervous, but she nodded, shelving her usual strict adherence to authority to look for the sword again. Cho went up the stairs and Padma disappeared into a back room.

Claire and Ginny looked at each other before diving into the Pensieve.

%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%%&

_It was pouring rain, which Albus Dumbledore decided must be appropriate. The battle against Voldemort wasn't going very well; the Order of the Phoenix was loosing members faster than the Death Eaters, despite the stunning victories they were winning they were slowly being forced back. _

_Dumbledore knew that the survival of the wizarding world depended on Voldemort's defeat. The madman didn't care who he hurt or what he destroyed on his quest for power. Albus shuddered to think of what Britain might look like under that man's control. The results would be catastrophic, and he knew the man would never be satisfied with just Britain. He'd continue into the rest of the world the moment he was stronger. _

_He was beginning to run out of options. He was the only person who had ever been feared by Voldemort. James and Lily had managed to stand their ground against him three times so far, but he doubted that Voldemort would accept that kind of defiance for much longer. Lily's muggle parents had already been moved out of the country to keep Death Eaters from murdering them in retaliation. Lily had begged Petunia to do the same, but her sister replied that she wasn't doing anything for 'freaks' and besides, her husband's job was here. _

_There had been three aurors who died in the last skirmish. _

_Dumbledore sighed. With all these things going on, it seemed almost absurd that he was going out to the Leaky Cauldron to find a new Divination teacher. At least, he was going to meet one of his contacts first. _

_He sat down at the bar, ordered a drink, and asked the man next to him, "What's the time?"_

"_Seven oclock. You're here early, Albus." The man said, arching an eyebrow. He was very dark, with brown hair and blue eyes. He was wearing a black trench coat and combat boots. He was stocky and well built. _

"_Max. I'm glad you could make it." Max wasn't the man's real name; even Albus didn't know the mercenaries real name. He despised the fact that he was getting help from someone who sold his services as a killer to whoever paid him best. But this man was one of the best in the business, other wizards had been singing his praises for the missions he did, and as he had realized many days ago he was running out of options. _

"_Do you know anything new?" Albus asked simply. _

_Max was silent for a long moment, making Albus wonder if he hadn't heard him – the pub was noisy tonight. He was about to repeat his question when Max said, "I do, and you're not going to like it." _

_He placed an oddly-shaped stone on the table and pushed it over to Albus. Albus looked down, and the symbol on it. The world around him suddenly seemed unstable, as though it was going to fall into the void any second. The universe tilted on its axis as he processed this new horror. _

"_It still exists?" He asked eventually, his voice weak._

"_Apparently." Max shrugged. "Far as I can tell, it hasn't been reformed yet, since we'd all be feeling it if it was. Anyway, it's my understanding that he intends to join them. Become their leader, actually." _

_Albus's fingers tightened on his mug. "This shouldn't' be possible. If he did – if the Dark Order come back – that would be catastrophic." _

"_Would be. You better do something about it, then." Max finished his drink and stood up. "I'm on a clock. Good luck, Albus. I rather like vacationing here – Death Eaters would ruin the atmosphere." With that, he left. _

_There was a blur and the memory changed, and suddenly Claire was face to face with a woman named Professor Trawley. _

"___The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches . . . born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies . . . and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not . . . and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives . . . the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies . . ."_

_"____The child in the prophecy is Claire...yes...I've checked it. I'm certain...James and Lily have defied him three times...Claire is the only one who can defeat the Dark Lord...she needs to be ready...that power he knows not must be Lily's love, which saved her from Avada Kedavera...then she must be ready when he returns...and I know he will." _

_"__She'll be famous. Everyone will love her."_

_"__Yes...which is why she must grow up away from all that...she must understand what it means to be the little person...to be able to bear pain given unjustly...to be able to hold other people up, put them first. That's why she must live with Petunia Dursley...we must arrange that..."_

%&%&%&%&%&%&&%&%%&%&&%

Claire sat down heavily. Ginny knelt next to her and touched her face, "Claire," she said anxiously, "It's okay. It'll be okay. I promise. We'll do something."

The other girls hurried over, alarmed, "What's wrong?" Hermione asked. Claire realized dimly that she was holding the sword of Gryffindor, but her mind was fixed on the prophecy.

Claire shook her head and Ginny said, "Not here, the Headmaster could be back at any moment. Come on – let's go to the Room of Requirement."

The other girls nodded tensely and hurried out of the office.

Outside, Hermione quickly checked the map. "Flitch is coming!" She hissed. Cringing, the girls darted down the hallway.

"Did Sirius tell you exactly where the Room of Requirement is?" Ginny asked breathlessly.

"Yes – here!" Claire hissed. They skidded to a halt in front of the wall, which turned into an ornate door before opening up. Inside was a living room with four couches. The girls ducked inside, the door closing behind them.

Cho, Padma and Hermione promptly collapsed on the couches.

Ginny stood for another moment, staring seriously into Claire's eyes. After a second, she reached up and put a hand on Claire's cheek.

"What happened?" Hermione asked, breaking the silence. Ginny and Claire sat down, and quietly Claire told them what she had just seen in the Pensieve.

After she had finished, the other girls looked quite pale. "What's the Dark Order? Why would V-You-Know-Who want to be the leader of it?" Padma asked timidly.

"I don't know." Claire said heavily. "But that prophecy...is that why he left me with my aunt and uncle?"

Cho let out a surprising, unladylike snort. "That prophecy? Oh, please. If that's the standard for Seers in this country, I pity Britain. It's so easy to poke holes in, I could be here all night."

"What?" Hermione said, eyes wide, "But it makes perfect sense, doesn't it?"

"How?" Cho asked.

"W-Well, it said 'born as the seventh month dies', and Claire was born in July." Hermione said.

Cho sighed patiently, "Hermione, do you know how many babies are born every day? Thousands. At least hundreds, in Britain itself. And it didn't explicitly state which family or which married couple the 'destroyer' would be born to. That doesn't exactly narrow it down, does it?"

"But it says, 'born to ones who have thrice defied him, he will mark as his equal'. According to _Notable Events of the Last Century, _Claire's parents Lily and James Potter personally fought You-Know-Who on three occasions, each time barely escaping with their lives."

Cho shook her head, "You don't have to face someone in battle to defy them, Hermi – do you mind if I call you that? James Potter was a pureblood who married a muggleborn. Every day they were married was a day they defied Voldemort and his beliefs about airostocracy. He joined the Order of the Phoenix, which was dedicated to defying You-Know-Who. In fact, Lily was born to muggle parents. Every day she _lived, _every time she cast a spell, she defied Voldemort and his belief that muggleborns amount to nothing. You know what that means? Lily isn't the only muggleborn in the world. Any time a muggleborn or half blood takes a position of authority, casts a spell, preforms a powerful feat, or overwhelmes/outclasses a pureblood in any way, they are defying You-Know-Who. That leaves literally tens of dozens of candidates for this 'prophecy', just within Britain itself."

"Also, the Dark Lord? Who's that? You-Know-Who isn't the only person in history to have gone by the title 'Dark Lord'. There's some pureblood lunatic running around in China right now who's being called a 'Dark Lord' by his followers, been around for ten years. Was it him? There was an American Dark Lord hanging around when this prophecy was made, was it about him? How about the Japanese Yakuza leader who also called himself a 'Dark Lord'? And those were just three infamous examples. There are probably a dozen other powerful dark wizards who are calling themselves 'Dark Lords' recently around, and the 'Dark Lord' in the prophecy could refer to any of them, since it never mentions his real name."

Claire was left blinking and dazed, it had seemed so certain a moment ago - "but what about this?" She raised her bangs, revealing her scar. "Doesn't this mean he marked me as his equal?"

Cho shook her head. "No, I don't think so. For you to be his equal, you would have to have the same power level as him, and the same knowledge. The same cunning and the same backup. When he approached you that night, it was to make you _less_ than him, not his equal. The phrasing of the prophecy is '_he will mark as his equal' _not _'he will accidentally mark as equal when trying to destroy them'"_

"Also – neither can live while the other survives? He seems to have survived just fine, and Claire hasn't exactly keeled over and died, has she?"

"Well, I wouldn't exactly call what You-Know-Who is right now 'living'." Ginny pointed out.

"Yes, but the phrasing is neither can _live _while the other _survives. _Voldemort is surviving, if not living, but Claire is living just fine. She got her godfather and uncle back, she has close friends, she has a future and a pretty singing voice to make a living with."

"Claire does have a scar." Susan said. "If that's not a mark, what is it?"

"But even if that was all correct," Cho said calmly, "the description is _still_ vague as hell. It _could _just as easilymean that Voldemort showed up at Claire's house, attacked her, left her with a scar, and was vanquished. Boom, prophecy fulfilled. Also, it says 'vanquish' and 'destroy' instead of 'kill' or 'end', which are much more definitive. It _could, _something I personally think is more likely,mean that Claire destroyed his chances of domination, and his body. Which she did. Back when she was one year old. And then they were equal – You-Know-Who powerless and destroyed, his followers imprisoned and scattered. Claire was left with no one in the world other than people who don't want her, her parents dead, her godfather falsely imprisoned and her honorary uncle was not allowed to care for her. Get where I'm going with this? Claire _already destroyed _him. Again, vague-as-hell Prophecy fulfilled."

"Also, going back to how unspecific this so called prophecy is, there's another person we know that meets this vague criteria. Neville."

"Huh?" Hermione blinked. "Our Neville?"

"Of course. His parents were both purebloods but they joined the Order of the Phoenix. Everything they did for the Order was in defiance of You-Know-Who, which again is way more than three times. Neville was born in July and was the same age as Claire when she was attacked. And while You-Know-Who didn't strike him directly, the people who followed him did, in direct following of You-Know-Who's plans, philosophy and orders. He lost his parents to a fate crueler than death, which I think is a mark of it's own. And again – You-Know-Who powerless and alone, Neville alone, miserable and left with people who mistreat him. I'd say that's pretty equal." Cho remarked. "So instead of _a _child, as the 'prophecy' said, we have at least two children who meet that exact criteria _that we know of_, because it isn't more specific. Which begs the question, who is it referring to?"

"It could be either of them. It could even include any muggleborn couple who had a child in July who defied him, and suffered for it." Susan said dazedly.

"Exactly." Cho said firmly, looking pleased with herself. "Most _good quality _prophecies don't have six different meanings or ways they could end. It would be much more exact, it would refer to the 'destroyer' as 'son of the House of Black' or 'Claire Jamesmaden'. It would also refer to You-Know-Who by the name he was born to, not as a 'Dark Lord'. If would specifically state what _kind _of defiance that occurred three times. Which makes me think that whoever gave Dumbledore this prophecy was a very weak Seer and misinterpreted a huge chunk of it, or didn't report it accurately. In any case, what we've heard has already been fulfilled. An accurate Seer would predict an event with perfect clarity."

"Wow." Claire's mind was spinning from everything she'd just learned.

"That's impressive," Ginny said blankly. "How could you tell all that stuff?"

Cho blushed lightly. "My cousin is a Seer. Specifically, he's a Dream-Weaver, kind of like Luna. It's very rare for the power to manifest when you're really young, so he had to sit through all kinds of lessons and history. He wouldn't sit still unless I was with him, because he found them so boring."

There was a short pause. Then Hermione awkwardly lifted the Sword of Gryffindor. "I, uh...I got it." She said lamely. Ginny giggled.

"At least we got what we came for." Padma said in relief. There was another awkward pause before all the girls started laughing.

"Oh wow, that was terrible." Hermione said between fits of laughter, "We broke into the Headmaster's office! And stole something! If someone had suggested this to me a few days ago, I would have had a heart attack!"

"I'm pretty sure my dad would kill me if he found out I did this." Padma agreed through snickers.

"Wouldn't a potential takeover of magical Britain be enough reason to temporarily suspend breaking-and-entering rules if it was really, really important?" Claire asked, giggling.

"Somehow I don't think even impending doom would convince Professor Snape that I couldn't hand in my homework on time," Ginny laughed.

Claire sobered slightly at the mention of Professor Snape. She was kind of scared of him, but at the same time she couldn't help but wonder what was up with him. She couldn't escape the feeling that the Potion's professor was in pain because of something, something that involved her mother, who Claire was a living shadow of. It was the only explanation that made sense in her head as to why the Professor had such a strange attitude towards her, and how he got it so quickly.

Another mystery for another time, she decided. Her current problem required her complete focus.

%&%&%&%&%&%%&%&%&%&%&

Lucius Malfoy glared at his wife, who was standing firmly in the doorway. "Narcissa, move. You know we're running out of time."

"No!" His wife shouted, eyes flashing. "It's too dangerous! You could kill him!"

Lucius gave a snarl of anger and stunned the stubborn woman. She collapsed in a heap. For the thousandth time Lucius wondered why he hadn't married a meeker woman. Oh, right – he had an opportunity to gain power like none he'd had before by marrying into the Black family.

Only his son betrayed him and everything their family stood for, for the sake of an _outsider, _and stole the Black fortune from him. He'd been so certain he was raising Draco correctly – intelligent, obedient, and prepared to serve the dark lord. And yet saving those Zabinis wasn't the end of the boy's mockery of him – he had gone and demanded Sirius Black get a trail, something that got the man cleared!

Lucius gripped his staff in rage at the thought. If the opportunity presented itself, he would kill the brat personally for his insolence. However, he had more pressing matters to attend to at the moment. The mainest one being what Narcissa had disagreed to.

Lucius opened the door Narcissa had been guarding and walked inside.

Alexander Orion Malfoy had been conceived shortly after Draco's betrayal and subsequent rejection of his family; they could not continue without an heir after all. The boy was only three years old, but Lucius could feel Amelia Bones closing in on him over the murder of Theodore Nott and his worthless parents. He had to return to the Dark Lord, but he had very little to show for the years he had spent while his master was a wraith. He needed results now. And what better way to regain his lost favour than offer the master a new servant, spy and, if he were truly honoured, body?

Lucius uncapped the Accelerate Age potion he had finally managed to convince a Ministy worker to brew. He would have rather had Severus make it but he knew the bat would refuse if he knew what it was for. He needed Alexander to be ready now. The side effects could be dangerous, but that was negligible.

Alexander blinked as Lucius walked up to him and held up his head. Lucius then poured the potion down his son's throat.

A moment later, there was a flash of crimson light and an agonized scream.

**End Chapter**

**Lucius just gets worse and worse, doesn't he? I hate the fact that he dodged Azkaban _again _after Deathly Hallows. He deserves to be thrown in there.**

**Read and Review please!**


	9. Chapter 9: Intermission

**RunAway**

**Moon: Welcome back everyone! This chapter's going to be shorter than the others due to crippling writers block! Seriously, this chapter was murder to write. Anyway, enjoy, and I do not own Harry Potter**

**Chapter 9: Intermission**

Claire couldn't remember exactly when they got back to their dorm, but it must have been really late, because she didn't wake up the next day until it was lunch time. Luckily for her, it was a Saturday, so she didn't get into trouble. Groggily, she slid out of bed and got dressed. Her head ached a bit due to the lack of sleep, but she could more or less ignore it.

All in all, they hadn't gotten very much done over the past week. Sirius had told her to be patient. Voldemort would have taken pains to make sure the anchors of his immortality would be hidden carefully. He and Remus had asked Kreacher to give them the Locket, and thankfully that had gone pretty much without incident, but they hadn't had a chance to investigate the Gaunt shack yet.

Draco had been very preoccupied over the Nott trial. He intended to testify, but the lack of activity from Lucius was worrying him. Usually Lucius would be making generous donations in the right places, but he was being strangely silent. This, Draco said, was not a good thing. It meant he had done something that made him more confident. Claire wondered what it could be.

Hermione suggested they spend extra time in the library, but Claire was pretty sure she'd loose her mind if she spent every day pouring over the dead ends they had dug up so far. For the moment, she decided to focus on her school work and on the other students.

Specifically, she wanted to spend more time with Ginny.

The redhead was as tired as Claire felt and was feeling the pressure of cabin fever; Claire didn't have to access their mind link to know that Ginny desperately missed the quiet and the calm of their seaside mansion and the time they had spent flying and running around the lawn. She made a beeline for her angel, who was sitting in the library and scowling in frustration at one of the books about Voldemort that Hermione had gotten them.

"Let's go outside." Claire suggested. Ginny glanced up at her and smiled. "Shall we? Professor Pomona said it was just fine for us to go out into the yard."

Ginny's relief was palpable. "Yes, that would be nice."

They walked through the school, ducking past Peeves who was making life miserable for Filch again. Claire had encountered the poltergist a few times and had always had to run in another direction; the spirit loved messing with students and Fred and George hanging out with him was doing no one any favors.

Speaking of whom, Claire felt honestly sorry for Snape, because he was stuck in an hour long detention with the Weasley Twins. That must be a nightmare, she thought sympathetically, she knew the twins had no respect for Snape and loved pranking the strictly organized teacher. There's no way any teacher would be able to slog through that detention without a bottle of pain medication on hand.

The usual rush of bewildered frustration went through her when she thought of her potion's teacher; he couldn't seem to make up his mind about her. Either she was a troublemaker or an angel who'd been trapped in human form quite by accident, depending on his mood. Susan agreed that it must have something to do with her parents, since Claire's first appearance hadn't given any real indication of what kind of student she was and yet Snape had seemed to have already made up his mind about her. Claire wondered what his reasons for acting this way were; it would make Potions much less stressful a class if she understood him.

Ginny gently poked her in the side, "You have your 'lost in thought' expression on, Claire. Don't you want to talk to me?"

Claire laughed, "You're right Ginny. I was just thinking. I'll stop that now; I do want to talk to you." They sat down on the grass outside. There was a breeze going through their hair. Ginny took a deep breath and sighed, thinking of the sea again.

"I wish we didn't have to do this alone," She sighed. Claire didn't have to ask to know she was talking about Voldemort.

"People are terrified of him," She pointed out with a sigh, "He and his followers killed a lot of people back in their day."

"And he was killed by a baby." Ginny deadpanned.

"Yeah, that doesn't sound very impressive, does it?" Claire giggled. More seriously she added, "I guess some people would do anything to avoid having to cross him."

"And yet a couple of kids are willing to?" Ginny challenged. "What's wrong with the adults in Britain?"

"I don't know." Claire admitted. "Being in Norway for so long made me forget what this place was really like. I had to live with my aunt and uncle who made it clear they didn't want anything to do with me; Dumbledore must have had someone watching me in case Voldemort's followers came after me, if the note he left Petunia was anything to go by. And they didn't do anything to make my life any better. It hurt so much...I thought the loneliness was going to crush me."

Ginny scooted closer and wrapped her arms around Claire's middle. "I know what that's like," She whispered. "There isn't a day that goes by when what mum was going to do to me doesn't haunt me. I don't know what happened to her; she was so kind and she loved us so much, and one day, she was just...smothering and domineering. Being married right after my OWLs, it terrified me. I didn't want to marry that young and I was afraid whoever she picked would hate me...just keep me for children, leave me shut up in house where all I could do was take care of my children and have more. She knew that and she still set it up. The betrayal...it hurts me every day."

"You don't have to think about her," Claire whispered, gently brushing away the tears that were threatening to come from Ginny's eyes.

"But she's my mother," Ginny whispered. "Of course I think about her...just like you think about your mother."

Claire angled herself to embrace Ginny fully; she hadn't realized it was still hurting her that much. Ginny rarely talked about her family before coming to Hogwarts aside from the occasional letter to her brothers. She hadn't realized...she should have known. "I'm sorry Ginny." She whispered. "She loved you once...she'll remember it before the end."

Ginny smiled weakly. "How is it you always know how to make me feel a little bit better?" She asked softly.

That question was rhetorical. Claire and Ginny knew first-hand from the talking of the schoolmates they had at Norway that they shared an uncommon bond. The teachers called it puppy love. "taking her off the market early, are you Claire?" Mrs. Summer had teased Claire once. She had been their math teacher, and one of the three openly gay teachers in the school they had attended.

Teasing aside, Claire had inevitably taken some stock in this comment. She kissed Ginny on her forehead.

"I'm still wondering how the few Death Eaters still out there got away from Azkaban by claiming that they had been under the Imperious curse, while Sirius, supposedly Voldemort's right hand man, wasn't even interrogated." Claire complained. "Wouldn't it have made the most sense to interrogate him if he was Voldemort's right hand or whatever? And Voldemort may be powerful, but he couldn't maintain daily control of twelve-twenty Imperious curses and still do all the stuff he was doing."

"Well, most Death Eaters are rich purebloods because they're descended from old lines. They probably lined some pockets as well as claiming Imperious." Ginny theorized.

"And the Ministry practices Summary Execution!" Claire exclaimed. "There's no other description for what the Dementor's Kiss does, although it's a whole lot less merciful than just beheading the culprit or making them face a firing squad! And the structure of the ministry itself is highly fallible."

Ginny nodded. "I can't wait to go back to Norway." She sighed. "This place is insane. And we'll inevitably meet resistance if we try to leave, because you're Britain's super-special chosen one and they want to use you to take care of all their problems..." She trailed off and stared up at one of the towers. For a second, Dumbledore had been visible in the window, but he left a moment later.

"Something else is bothering you?" Claire asked when she didn't finish her sentence.

Ginny nodded reluctantly. "It...it's that prophecy we heard in Dumbledore's office."

"Remember what Cho said?" Claire said. "It's most likely already fulfilled."

"I know." Ginny said softly. "It's just...if there's the slightest chance in hell it means what Dumbledore thinks it means...what will happen to you?" She looked pleadingly at Claire. "I don't want to loose you, Claire...I don't think I could bear that."

Claire stood up. Ginny did the same, and Claire put her hands on her shoulders, saying seriously, "You're not going to loose me Ginny. I'm not going anywhere, and I don't care what any prophecy says. I'm going to be at your side for as long as we shall live, and even longer than that. We will never be parted. We'll live our lives together and I don't plan on letting some ego-maniacal self-proclaimed Dark Lord change that."

"Claire..." Ginny whispered, staring back into Claire's green eyes. When Claire gazed back steady and seriously, Ginny smiled again, this time sincerely, and hugged Claire tighter. Feeling bold, she stood up on her toes and pecked Claire on the lips.

Claire smiled lightly and kissed back.

%&%&&%&%&%%&%&%&&%

Draco hadn't realized how long he'd been hanging over the files of Theodore Nott and his parents when he felt hands on his shoulders. Luna gently rubbed his shoulders and said, "Draco, the wackersprouts will come after you if you don't take a break soon."

Draco nodded, sighing. "You're right, Luna..." He stood up and walked over to his bed, which he collapsed on. "Ugh, I didn't notice time going by. How long have I been up?"

"Since the middle of last night. Blaise told me." Luna responded. She sat down next to Draco, gazing at the ceiling, seeing something that he couldn't.

Draco glanced over at his Luna. He had spent the years he had lived with her working to understand her worldview. He was pleased with his progress, becoming more open-minded and looking for angels in the cracks of the sky was an easy way to relax.

Luna was beautiful, though she was still a little girl, and her strangeness only made her more fascinating for him. She was a puzzle; his puzzle. He enjoyed puzzles. And despite her strangeness she always seemed to perfectly understand him.

She was like Claire; pain and loneliness were there, but deeply buried. She didn't show it; it just didn't seem to bother her most of the time. There were only a few times...like the time she had told him that she didn't know how to dance. Draco hated seeing her like that; she was always so strong and she hadn't deserved the bullying she had gotten over the years. She had gotten better, with the time she had spent with him and the other runaways, but he could sense the scars that still lingers below the skin. He hoped that being back in Britain for a year wouldn't tear down all the healing she had done.

_I'll protect her. _Draco thought privately. _She'll never suffer again. She'll be safe from Voldemort, no matter what I have to do to ensure it, I will._

Luna tilted her head slightly and smiled at him. Draco treasured her smile, and the way it lit up her blue eyes. Yes. He'd do anything for that.

**End Chapter**

**A lot shorter than my other chapters, yes. But it's an intermission. The hunt for Horcruxes (and an Azkaban breakout) are around the corner.****I hate Voldemort, and more than all the pain and death he causes, it makes it hard to write a story where he dies differently. He's a roadblock in most cases. **


	10. Chapter 10: The Diary

**RunAway**

**Moon: Sorry I haven't updated this in a while, but I got stuck and my other stories demanded attention. But I do plan on finishing this one. For this chapter I have one word - and the world is PANIC! I do not own Harry Potter.**

**Chapter 10: Quirrel/The diary**

Draco shifted in bed, putting a hand over his heart. He couldn't explain it, but there was a twinge in his heart. A tiny voice telling him that someone with close ties to him was in danger. It didn't make sense; he knew that the other Runaways were all in their beds. He frowned and stared at the ceiling of the Slytherin dorm.

The feeling wouldn't leave him alone, however. Draco sighed, _Claire? You awake?_

_Yes? _Claire's response was drowsy. _What's wrong Draco?_

_Are you feeling that? You're an empath. I can't shake this feeling that something is horribly wrong. _Draco said.

Claire was silent for a long moment.

Draco was about to think that he was imagining things when Claire was suddenly alert. _Oh, Merlin!_

_Claire? Claire, what is it? _Ginny's voice joined them, giving the impression that Claire's mental cry had shaken her awake.

_Draco's right. Something's wrong. _Claire said frantically.

_What's wrong? _Luna asked, _Our houses are nargle-proof. I checked them twice. _

_I knew Luna, not that kind of wrong. _Claire sounded like she was in slight pain. _There are two people out in the halls...but they both feel _wrong_. Like, like..._

_Imperious? _Ginny asked harshly.

_No, _Claire's voice was strangled. _It's something else, something powerful and malevolent and terrible. They don't want to – they're enslaved by something, whatever it is is going to use them to unleash something on the school. _

Draco strained his senses. He wasn't nearly as adept in emotional magic as Claire, but the feeling of fear and panic in his chest was what had kept him awake, and he reached out to it. _I don't understand. We're all here, but I can't shake this feeling that someone close to me is going to die. _

_Are our friends still in their dorms? _

The Runaways did a quick headcount and found all their friends asleep in their beds.

_...They wouldn't_. It was Luna's voice that they heard first, sharp with a very uncharacteristic note of shock.

_Who wouldn't? _Ginny asked, startled. _Luna? _

_Draco..._ Luna trailed off for a moment, before saying, _Exactly how obsessed was your father with family legacy? _

_Very, but I don't see- _Draco lost his train of thought when the implications of Luna's question struck him. There was a painful pause before he shot to his feet. "Merlin!"

Blaise let out a startled groan and sat up in bed, sleepy. "Uhhh...Draco? What's the matter?"

"Lucius damned Malfoy is the problem. Merlin...he wouldn't. He did. He did, damn him!"

This woke Neville to. He and Blaise got out of their beds and looked at Draco, who had grabbed his wand and robes. "Draco, what the hell is going on?" Blaise snapped, watching his friend worriedly.

"I have a younger sibling." Draco nearly choked on the word. "And he's inside the school. Hear to unleash a monster."

Neville looked confused, but the same realization Draco had just gotten himself occurred to Blaise, because his eyes widen in shock.

"Even he wouldn't do that," Blaise whispered.

"He just did," Draco spat. "Come on!"

Draco could tell through their mental link that the girls were waking their friends to help with the battle. Good, they'd be needing all the help they could get.

"Hang on, what's going on? I thought Draco was an only child," Neville said breathlessly as he ran to keep up with Draco and Blaise.

"I was," Draco said, "But they obviously had a child to replace me when I ran away. And then they aged up that child so he'd be suitable to pull off whatever they're about to do!" The pain in his chest was getting stronger.

Neville blanched. "He would do that? But that could tear him apart, physically and mentally! It's one of the most painful ways someone can die! That potion is illegal, gets you up to a lifetime in Azkaban!"

"Somehow I don't think he gives a damn," Draco cursed. "We have to find him and whoever's helping him before something worse happens!"

"Do the others know?" Blaise asked as they rounded a corner.

"Yeah, they're on their way." Draco said, when suddenly they were confronted with Peeves.

"Students out of bed!" The poltergist cackled.

"Peeves, there's a security breech in the castle, wake whoever you like but have them followed us!" Neville yelled almost spontaneously. He didn't even have time to be surprised that those words had just come out of his mouth. Blaise and Draco spared a single second to look at him in surprise.

Peeves blinked when Claire, Ginny, Hermione, Luna, Cho, Padma, Susan and Hannah all hurtled out from around the corner.

"Is it true?" Hermione asked, her face very white.

"Yes," Draco said angrily. The girls swallowed and glanced at each other worriedly. "Peeves just went off, probably to raise the alarm."

"Do we have any idea where they've gone?" Susan asked, in her 'future Auror' game face.

"Where could they bring in a monster here?" Cho asked, seeking destinations.

"The forbidden forest?" Hannah suggested.

"The Chamber of Secrets!" Hermione exclaimed suddenly, causing many of her friends to jump.

"The what? I thought that was a myth," Ginny said in bewilderment.

"Well, it's true that they say they've never found it, but a monster got loose in here fifty years ago and killed a student. Mrytle Megrew." Hermione said. "They said it was a giant spider in the woods but her body didn't have any bite marks-"

"Wait. Did you say Mrytle?" Cho asked.

"Yes. That was her name, she was a third year when she died," Hermione said, looking apprehensively at her friend.

Cho looked among her friends and said, "They're in the girl's bathroom. I bet you the next Quidditch match that Mrytle Megrew is Moaning Myrtle."

%&%&%&%&%&%%&%&%&%&%&%&%&

There were footsteps on the floor late at night in the halls of Hogwarts. The doors to the girl's bathroom swung open, and a young boy walked inside.

Ron Weasley looked up from the diary. He was gaunt, had circles under his eyes, his cheeks bloodless; he looked more like a hollow shell than anything else, appearing twice his age although he was only eleven. A diary was clutched in one hand as though his life depended on it, the sickly glowing green appearance of it speaking to the contrary of this.

"You're bloody late, mate," His words were slurred and seemed to be dragged out of him, as though something was making him speak against his will. "I've been here for two bloody hours. What kept you?"

"It isn't easy, sneaking into the school," Came the strained but cultured response. The other boy seemed to be in constant pain, as though he were straining against his every action. "There was so much useless legislation that had to be abides by."

"Screw the useless sodding legislation. It means nothing to you anyway."

"We cannot afford to blow our Master's cover until he has sufficiently recovered." The second boy said. "He won't be prepared for an attack in the state he's in now."

"Who are you, anyway?" Ron asked suspiciously.

"Alexander Malfoy." The boy responded.

Ron's darkened eyes widened and he scrambled backwards. "No...I don't...I can't...no way! Agh!" He doubled over, his grip on the diary shifting.

"You won't last much longer," Alexander muttered. "But the Master will need more than that." He raised his dulled, controlled eyes to the sink and made a hissing noise. The doors to the chamber swung open.

Alexander sighed and gave Ron a push when the boy refused to enter the chamber. They both tumbled through the dark, dripping tunnels until they reached the chamber itself.

Alexander, not in his own mind, spoke another command in the hissing voice, and the door swung open.

Waiting inside was Professor Quirrel. His trademark turban was missing, and an ugly, twisted face with no nose was resting on the back of his head.

Ron tried to scream, but it came out as a strangled squeak and he collapsed.

Quirrel/the face snorted. "True Gryffindor courage, that one," He snarled out.

Alexander shivered and said, "I'm here, milord. He's poured most of his life into the diary. You're have more power then before."

Quirrel gave the boy a cold smirk. "And you remember your part in this, boy?"

Alexander swallowed hard, and looked as though he longed to flee, but an unseen force opened his mouth and he said, "I am a peace offering."

"Get on the alter." Quirrelmort said. "We'll start the ceremony immediately. There's no time to loose... I _will _rise again, and I when I do I'm going to finish what I started with the Potter girl all those years ago!And this time I, Lord Voldemot, WILL be the triumphant one!"

%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&

Sirius swore as he released Remus and Andromeda from the binding curse. "I'm sorry, I should have caught that one."

"It's alright. We're not hurt. Samantha?" Remus called.

"I have it." A rich Italian voice rang out from the next room. A second later, Samantha Zabini emerged from the next room, ring in hand. It was plain to see where Blaise had gotten his attractive features from. She held it out. "Here it is."

Andromeda put a table out and Samantha put the ring on it, with no small amount of disgust on her face. "For someone to have made one of these," She muttered.

"No kidding," Sirius said, and inwardly cheered when Samantha's lips twitched upwards into a smirk that she quickly smothered. The glare that she sent at him right afterwards did nothing to discourage him.

The four of them stood a good distance away from the table. "On the count of three," Remus said. They raised their wands. "one...two...three. _Fiendfyre!_"

Fire blazed out of the tips of their wands and consumed the ring, the table and the better part of the shack. With a grunt of effort, Sirius cut off the fire after this.

Remus and Andromeda went to inspect what might have been left behind while Sirius turned to Samantha. "...Sam. I wanted to say this to you – I'm sorry about the Yue Ball, back in school. I am. I regret messing things up-"

His three hour apology was cut off when Samantha put a finger on his lips. The woman looked at him for a moment before saying, "Did you just apologize?"

"Yes, of course..." Sirius mumbled when Samantha kissed him, hard, cutting him off further.

"Hey, you two. Focus please?" Andromeda said teasingly.

Remus suddenly said, "My god."

The three of them walked around him to see him holding a small, perfectly unharmed stone.

"...A Hallow."

**End Chapter**

**In which everything happens at once. and more bad stuff is to come!**

**Read and Review please!**


End file.
